The Democrats and the Judiciary

Let’s face it-the Left has a love affair with an activist judiciary. Name one major social issue they have advanced through a legislative body. Drawing a blank? Marriage, abortion, etc? Nothing comes to mind? Which is why the Left is fighting so hard right now to keep as many good judges off the federal bench as they can. Good conservative judges who understand their Constitutional responsibilities and don’t act as legislators. They call balls and strikes and leave legislative action up to duly elected legislative bodies.
This morning, however, things began to go south for the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee. For months Chairman Leahy has refused to schedule hearings for circuit court nominees. That changed this morning. Though they hold a majority in committee, all the Republicans showed this morning versus five Democrats. Outnumbered almost 2 to 1, the Democrats got rolled. Chairman Leahy tried to move on other issues, Senator Specter kept bringing it back to the subject of judges. Senator Feinstein of California tried to give Chairman Leahy cover by reading off percentages of judges confirmed under President Bush versus those confirmed under President Clinton to which Senator Kyl of Arizona responded with actual numbers-Clinton got 15 circuit court noms confirmed during his final two years in office, Bush has only gotten 6 to date. The numbers regarding district court noms is roughly the same, ie Clinton got almost twice as many as Bush has gotten to date.
Probably what was the most disconcerting moment during the hearing this morning was when Senator Coburn challenged Leahy on why “Good judges like Robert Conrad have not received a hearing, 250 days after his nomination?” Leahy was obviously caught off guard, consulted with his chief consul and then said, “I believe the hold up is due to Conrad’s anti-Catholic remarks.” While I guessed Leahy was referring to Conrad calling Sister Prejean’s book Dead Man Walking “liberal drivel,” his comment was disingenuous at best. Robert Conrad is a man who takes his Catholic faith very seriously. Coburn’s response was perfect, “IF that is true, then that is why we have hearings, to air things like that out in public.”
At the end of the committee meeting, something happened that even caught me off guard-Leahy asked for a voice vote on Catharina Haynes, the nominee for the 5th Circuit. She was voted out by voice vote. The Democrat members in the room didn’t even ask for a roll call vote. Their bluff had been called and they knew it.
The tide turned just a little bit this morning regarding the fight on judges. I am interested to see how it goes in the following weeks.