Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Catch of the Day

After I wrote yet another post over at the Plum Line about judicial nominations, in which I said that if Obama wants to break the logjam he should spend some energy on the issue, someone with the twitter handle @kanerane2001 responded
@jbplainblog why dont you look at the front page of the whithouse.gov website top item was judicial nom blocks with an iconograph!!!!!
Good point! Checking, whitehouse.gov does, in fact, have an item on judicial nominations.I don't know that I'd call it the top item...it's a "featured topic" just below a large gallery of rotating photos on various topics. But it links to a fairly detailed look at Obama's record on nominations and GOP obstruction. Of course, the White House web site neglects to point out Obama's own failure to nominate judges promptly.

It's a nice catch, and it's nice that the administration is paying at least some public attention to the issue, but I think it's still fair to say that judicial nominations haven't been a priority. Perhaps the web site is a hint that they'll go on the offensive this fall, but I'm not holding my breath on that.

3 comments:

  1. That infographic has been up for a while. The WH was promoting it through their Facebook feed, and probably their Twitter feed, when it went up.

    Maybe O isn't pushing it because of all the complaints made by the Bush admin when Dems were holding up his nominees. That was when Trent Lott famously coined the term "nuclear option" as a means of busting filibusters.

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  2. It's not just judges. The Senate has been constipated, on about everything, ever since Christmas Eve 2009 when they voted up ObamaCare. So Obama created his own problem here.

    The Senate hasn't done much on taxing and budgeting since that date, nearly 2 years ago, even though that's their base work. They wait for full cover and backroom dealmaking, as we see recently in the belated 2011 budget, the debt ceiling deal, and the Bush Tax Cut extension last December. Regular order is out the window, presumably because they want to stay incognito, and not have the usual video and paper and voting trail to have to contend with come reelection time.

    These are all signs that the vulnerable senators know they're in deep trouble, and have known for a long time, ever since 12/24/09. Oh how those senators must wish they could take that vote back.

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  3. Republicans are really good at objecting to everything and ensuring that Obama gets as little done as possible. What does get done is then promptly sabotaged by lack of funding or lack of appointments or some other bureaucratic maneuver.

    Republicans are the anti-governance party - why did we choose them to govern?

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