Breaking news: Republican says that Bush got his judicial nominees filibustered

[ck4829]

Ed Whelan has a piece in the latest edition of The National Review that has been posted on the Ethics and Public Policy Center website in which he hails the “appointments of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito as two of (President Bush’s) best decisions” before launching into the by-now standard Republican complaint that Bush’s judicial nominees faced unprecedented obstruction at the hands of Democrats:

"President Bush's record on lower-court appointments is much more mixed. Let's begin with the numbers. Bush appointed 62 judges to the federal courts of appeals. That's even fewer than the 65 that President Clinton appointed, amidst bitter Democratic complaints and media buzz about a confirmation slowdown by Senate Republicans. Bush's total also includes three of Clinton's unsuccessful nominees whom Bush renominated -- two in 2001 in unrequited gestures of goodwill, and one in 2008 as part of a Sixth Circuit deal. The numbers for the federal district courts are even worse: 261 Bush appointees versus 305 Clinton appointees. The Bush numbers are all the more disappointing as Republicans controlled the Senate for more than half of the Bush presidency, whereas Clinton enjoyed Democratic control for only two of his eight years."

However, according to the White House’s own figures cited in the Washington Post article above, “324 of 376 federal court nominees have been confirmed during Bush's tenure.” That gives him a confirmation rate of 86%, well above President Clinton’s confirmation rate. In fact, for Bush to lower his confirmation rate to match that of Clinton, he'd have to nominate another 50 or so judges before he leaves office in a few months.

http://rightwingwatch.org/content/fun-judicial-numbers

[Idealism]

1. Yeah because those peskys Dem's shouldnt be obstructionists

when Bush nominates his cleaning lady to the Supreme court...

[Democrats_win]

2. Everyone knows the repubs wrongfully obstructed Clinton's nominations.

This RW rag's accusations shows that the Conservative movement is nothing but a bowel movement of lies.

The good news is that the Repuke party is now NOTHING but an obstruction as our nation tries to recover from the failed bush presidency.

[Bobbie Jo]

3. Republican says (insert lie here)......

:eyes:

[gratuitous]

4. Who was filibustered?

Names, please? And the federal courts of appeal are only one segment of the entire federal judiciary. All Whelan's foolish analysis means is that there was one less vacancy on the federal courts of appeal every 32 months.

I'll bet a shiny nickel that Whelan didn't do any analysis of, for example, Republican obstructionism under Clinton where they simply refused to have committee hearings on nominees. No committee hearing, no referral to the full Senate. Might as well not have made a nomination in the first place. But let us not speak of such things, as they make Whelan and his Republican pals look like whiny ass titty babies.