The United States Senate has the constitutional obligation to provide “advice and consent” on presidential appointments of judges to the bench, a procedure President George W. Bush now may be wishing the Founders had left out.
Under the leadership of Majority Leader Tom Daschle, the Senate has stalled consideration of most of Bush’s judicial nominees. Just 43 percent of nominees were confirmed in Bush’s first year in office.
WorldNetDaily radio talk-show host Geoff Metcalf recently interviewed Thomas L. Jipping, WorldNetDaily columnist and vice president for Legal Policy at the Free Congress Research & Education Foundation in Washington, D.C., about the slow progress of judicial confirmations in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Jipping first laments the fact that Republicans were not much tougher on President Bill Clinton’s nominees.
“Is it true that Republicans did what Democrats are accusing them of? [obstructing Clinton appointments]” Jipping asks. “To be honest with you, I wish it were. I wish it were true that Republicans obstructed Clinton’s nominees, because then his appointed judges wouldn’t be doing what they are doing today. The fact is Bill Clinton was 374 to 1 in his eight years in office – second only to Ronald Reagan, and he almost beat him. Anybody who had that kind of record in anything would be a smashing success. Clinton had a supposed ‘opposition’ Senate for six of his eight years in office, and he still had a 374 to 1 record. I wish Republicans had had the guts that Democrats do today, to stand up to the kind of activist judges that Bill Clinton appointed.”
Metcalf discusses with Jipping the reasons “activist judges” have gained such a high level of influence in public policy.
“The bottom line is this,” Jipping explains. “The left wing doesn’t like democracy because their agenda doesn’t win; people don’t like it. People won’t choose the kind of left-wing policies they want the country to have, so, like sore losers, they don’t take the people’s ‘No!’ for an answer. They go from the state house to the court house to find judges who will impose policies and values on us that we have not chosen for ourselves. That’s why they want an activist judiciary.”
Jipping believes the Democratic leadership in the Senate will continue to stall the judicial nomination process, rather than moving forward and simply voting “no” on Bush’s nominees.
“It is easier not to have to cast any vote,” he said. “This is why Tom Daschle prevents votes on the energy bill, prevents votes on certain nominations, and prevents votes on the stimulus package. Because Democrat senators don’t want to cast votes on any of this stuff. It’s easier to keep something on the shelf by just keeping it on the shelf. There will be pressure to hold hearings. Then they’ll hold a few. Then they’ll wait a while before they hold a committee vote. Then they’ll wait a while before they hold a full senate vote. There are just ways at each step in the process to delay and obstruct and they’ll use each one of those steps to their advantage.”
Read the full text of Jipping’s lively interview in Sunday’s WorldNetDaily.