Bush-Era GOP Better at Breaking Filibusters

[Are_grits_groceries]

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It’s in that context that the White House and Senate Democrats are reported to be looking at a strategy shift–coming up with a massive list of judicial nominees to “flood the pipeline” and complicate Republican filibusters.

It’s a strategy that conservative activists understand very well. In conversations with TWI, some of the key conservatives who helped get Bush’s nominees through the Senate expressed surprise at how often President Obama’s nominees–judicial and otherwise–have been dragged down by Senate holds and filibusters.

“When you have a popular president and 60 seats in the Senate, you should be able to do whatever you want,” said one Bush administration veteran who worked on pushing through judicial nominations, speaking anonymously so as not to offend friends still in Washington. “Insofar as they can’t get what they want, it’s entirely up to them. Why the hell can’t Dawn Johnsen get a vote? They’ve decided not to use the political capital to get her confirmed.”

Rachel Brand, a former associate counsel in the Bush White House, said that the Republican administration had more success in filling the bench and getting nominees confirmed because it proposed so many nominees, and because much of their attention was put to the effort. “If they had been pulling out all the stops and working as hard as possible to get as many nominations as fast possible,” said Brand, “they might have done the same as us.”
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http://washingtonindependent.com/68290/conservatives-say-obama-efforts-on-nominees-falls-short

I will NEVER understand why they have let the Republicans bring government to a slow crawl. There are ways to break
the obstruction, but it takes a concerted effort.

The movement might still be slow, but there would be movement. As it is, some of the weight of the lack of progress is starting to be put on the administration.