Great editorial in New York Times this morning recognizing the hypocrisy of Senate Republicans threatening to filibuster President Obama’s judicial nominees well before any are named and urging Senator Leahy to let the blue slip process — under which senators get a way to block judicial nominees from their home state — die quietly. The editorial very eloquently echoes some of the most important points People For the American Way has been making for weeks, and it is definitely worth reading.
When President George W. Bush was stocking the federal courts with conservative ideologues, Senate Republicans threatened to change the august body’s rules if any Democrat dared to try to block his choices, even the least-competent, most-radical ones. Filibustering the president’s nominees, they said, would be an outrageous abuse of senatorial privilege.
Now that President Obama is preparing to fill vacancies on federal benches, Republican senators have fired off an intemperate letter threatening — you got it — filibusters if Mr. Obama’s nominees are not to their liking. Mr. Obama should not let the Republicans’ saber-rattling interfere with how he chooses judges.