Monday, February 17, 2003
what happens next
Next week will bring an answer to this question, on the Estrada nomination: do President Bush and Senator Frist understand the art of political compromise? President Clinton understood it on judgeships, though I have to admit that it infuriated me at the time; this is among the many reasons I am not an elected official. In order to break a logjam over judicial nominations, President Clinton agreed to a deal.
President Bush should do the same, and here are the outlines of how it should go: that the Senate should proceed to a vote on the nomination of John Roberts to the DC Circuit along with a nominee selected by the Democratic Senate leadership, with the promise of the Senate Republican leadership to support that nomination, and the passage of a bill to reduce the number of active judgeships on the DC Circuit to 10 (from the current 12). Then the Senate can move on to other business. This will put the long-running DC Circuit wars behind us for a while, and create a valuable precedent for "advice and consent" in future conflicts. President "uniter not a divider" Bush should actively work for such a deal.
posted by sam 8:18 AM 
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(The Return of) Ignatz, by Sam Heldman