Nominations
NOMINATIONS -- (Senate - February 15, 2007)
Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, let me echo the remarks of my good friend, the majority leader, about the circuit court judge situation. We are off to a good start. I wish to thank him, and I wish to thank Chairman Leahy for moving the Randy Smith nomination to the Ninth Circuit. As the majority leader has indicated, that vote will be at 10:30. We have had very good conversations, the majority leader and myself, about restoring comity to the Senate on the business of dealing fairly with the President's nominations for circuit court judgeships.
The President has met the Senate halfway--some would say more than halfway--demonstrated by his actions at the beginning of the Congress and by the people he has chosen to resubmit for our consideration. The President's efforts have been recognized and lauded by the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and several other publications. These papers have noted the burden is now on the Senate to reciprocate and treat the President's nominees fairly, and we are off to a good start in doing that.
Moving the Smith nomination today is an act of good faith on the part of the majority leader and Senator Leahy, which I and others on this side of the aisle appreciate. It is a good beginning. Of course, it is only a beginning, but it is a good beginning. As I have said, the President should be treated as fairly as his three immediate predecessors, each of whom finished their terms with the Senate in control of the opposition party. Yet those Presidents received an average of 17 circuit court nominations confirmed. If this President is not treated as fairly as his predecessors, then, of course, the comity and cooperation in the Senate might be harder to come by. But there is no indication that will be the case, and I am not predicting it. In fact, I am optimistic we are going to be able to move through these nominations with a high level of fairness and comity. Again, I wish to thank both Senator Reid and Chairman Leahy for their fair treatment of this first judge as we begin to move down the path toward getting a reasonable number of circuit court nominees confirmed during this 2-year period.
I yield the floor.
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