GOP Leaders Seek To Slow Debate of a Supreme Court Nominee

[babylonsister]

Of course they do.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=news-000003116479

GOP Leaders Seek To Slow Debate of a Supreme Court Nominee


Senate Republican leaders emerged from a meeting with President Obama Wednesday and immediately began laying the groundwork for opposing Democratic efforts to get a Supreme Court nominee confirmed before the August recess.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the average length of time between the announcement of a nominee and a confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee is 60 days and he would like to see that precedent followed when Obama selects a nominee to replace Associate Justice David H. Souter . Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican, said he opposed operating under a false sense of urgency, suggesting “there’s plenty of time” to get Souter’s successor in place before the court’s new term begins in October.

Majority Leader Harry Reid said he hopes to move “as quickly as we can” but said he wanted “no arbitrary deadlines” such as a 60-day window.

Patrick J. Leahy , D-Vt., the Judiciary Committee chairman, added, “we’ll work out a decent schedule. Let’s get the nominee first.”

Conservatives would like to see the process to be delayed until after the summer recess, which begins Aug. 10 for the Senate.

“If Sen. Reid still has the votes for confirmation after the senators face their constituents in August, no one can complain that the process wasn’t fair,” Curt Levey, a leading conservative activist on judicial nominees, said Wednesday.

Democrats would prefer as to avoid having a nominee left hanging during the monthlong recess.

If Obama announces his choice next week, it would be logistically possible for Leahy and Reid to schedule a confirmation hearing, a committee vote and a floor vote before Aug. 10 and still meet the 60-day window. But if Obama waits much longer, such a limit would make it difficult to confirm a nominee before the August recess.

Senators said Obama did not give them a date when a nominee might be announced. “He indicated it wasn’t imminent,” Sessions said. Asked when he expected an announcement, Reid said only “soon.”

[LakeSamish706]

1. President Obama should demand that they stay in session until they confirm...

the nominee.

[KansDem]

2. "GOP Leaders Seek To Slow Debate "

As in...

"GOP...Leaders...Seek...To...Slow...Debate...."

You can always tell a Republican (you just can't tell him much).

[bdamomma]

3. I thought the repigs were the minority party, the party of obstructionists

they will never stop with their BS.

[derby378]

4. It worked so well against Al Gore and Al Franken

:mad:

[blue_onyx]

5. Obama better make his pick soon

if they want a chance of getting him/her approved by the Senate before the August break. I was looking at some past nominees and seems like it typically takes 2-3 months from nomination to approval. With the GOP planning to hold things up, even a uncontroversial nominee could take a while to approve.

[aquamarina]

6. GOP =

Great Obstructionist Party