Blocking Bush's Nominees
HAYES, STEPHEN F.
Blocking Bush's Nominees Lots of advice from Senate Democrats but little consent. BY STEPHEN F. HAYES WHEN SENATOR PATRICK Leahy gaveled the Judiciary Committee to order on Monday, December 10, he...
...No one is sure...
...A fight on Scalia gets labor issues involved," says one nominations veteran...
...They help their money-raising operations...
...He said the first responsibility of the solicitor is "to enforce the nearly 200 laws administered by the department...
...It is deplorable that we have stalled in filling this critical job when our commander in chief and our secretary of state have been urging us to do so...
...He brings back Bush v. Gore in the news...
...Before the attacks, it was rumored that Miller might switch parties, giving control of the Senate back to Republicans...
...In one of the quirkier rules of the Senate, individual senators can place a perma-hold on nominations they find objectionable...
...So what are the real reasons for the The confirmation battles over Reich and Scalia will indicate how hard George W. Bush is prepared to fight for his nominees...
...That shouldn't matter, says Stuart Roy, a spokesman for the Department of Labor...
...Scalia is Bush's pick to be the top legal adviser at the Department of Labor...
...A Bush official working on the Reich nomination says "the entire letter did not have one true charge in it...
...obstruction...
...These are the PR battles meant to fire up the troops," says McClure, who helped guide Clarence Thomas through his contentious hearings ten years ago and was called upon again to shepherd John Ashcroft's nomination earlier this year...
...Henry Foster to assume the basically meaningless post of surgeon general, no one was more aggrieved than Connecticut Democrat Christopher Dodd...
...If the votes are not there, let's have a vote, up or down—not on a filibuster, up or down—and if he doesn't have the votes, we'll be satisfied," says Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott...
...But it's a topic few have raised publicly of late...
...And what about Daschle's third point, that Scalia has "left the impression" that he won't enforce Labor laws...
...The administration has thus far been patient about its nominees, consumed as it has been by the war on terrorism...
...The Democratic agenda-setters managed to squeeze in the Railroad Retirement Act, a pork-laden "stimulus package," and subsidies to bison farmers...
...On December 4, Daschle announced that Scalia wouldn't even be that lucky—there would be no floor vote at all...
...That breakthrough came on December 5—more than 10 months after Bush's inaugura-tion—when John Walters was finally confirmed as drug czar...
...But shortly after Scalia's committee hearing, even in the bipartisan glow of post-attack Washington, Capitol Hill was abuzz with rumors that he would be roughed up before he was given a floor vote...
...Otto Reich is an honorable man, and he will do a terrific job," he said last month...
...Daschle, after Dodd's intemperate letter to the Wall Street Journal, invited Reich to meet with him...
...They are careful to point out, however, that this would be a last resort...
...If they're willing to vote against this well-qualified, very intelligent young man to be the solicitor general of the Department of Labor, then fine...
...When they do, they may get some help from Georgia Democrat Zell Miller, who says he's fed up with the games his party is playing...
...Daschle can determine which nominees require 51 votes and which nominees require 60 votes...
...Secretary of State Colin Powell has repeatedly implored the Senate to confirm him...
...There are plenty of indications that most likely the administration is going to ramp this stuff up after the holidays," says a senior GOP leadership aide...
...in short, he argued, the problem was time...
...That's all this is "In addition to Zell Miller, several other Democratic senators have indicated publicly that they will vote for Reich...
...It's a macho thing, that's it," says Arizona senator Jon Kyl, who is leading the charge in the Senate for the president's nominees...
...Democrats achieved all of this before they got around to allowing the president a full cabinet...
...Senator Leahy himself worked hard to win $1.5 million for the revitalization of Winoos-ki, Vermont, a town of 6,600...
...When Bob Novak challenged Daschle on Scalia and ergonomics a week later on CNN, the majority leader elaborated...
...Then he ticked off reasons for the unprecedented delays...
...Scalia opposed Clinton-administration ergonomics regulations that were not only rejected by a majority in Congress, they were widely mocked as a quintessential bureaucratic overreach...
...And if Bush wants to think about making [Antonin] Scalia chief justice"—assuming Chief Justice William Rehnquist retires, as expected—"this is a good warning shot...
...But at least at a hearing, Reich could answer the accusation...
...You know, I have to be convinced that the votes are there, and I don't think the votes are there for Mr...
...A vote could lead to a "lengthy debate" over the nominee's qualifications, and the Senate apparently can't spare the time...
...Democrats weren't supportive of Scalia, Daschle declared, "especially given his position on ergonomics...
...But Foster at least got a hearing, something that Dodd today stubbornly denies Otto Reich...
...And I'll just tell you that it gives me pause, not to mention some shame, that I find myself a part of the caucus responsible for such conduct...
...And, warns one administration official, "there are other options that we don't want to talk about just yet...
...Scalia's nomination was passed out of Senator Ted Kennedy's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in early October...
...Bush advisers are seriously considering recess appointments of Reich, Scalia, and others...
...Reich's qualifications alone make it something of a travesty that Dodd is blocking his nomination...
...The idea that you would even block consideration of this person from having a vote on the floor of the Senate is childish and wrong and certainly brings disgrace on this institution," Dodd fulminated...
...He has said that not only would he oppose ergonomics, but he would—the impression he has left many of us is that he would even oppose the implementation, the administration of the rules that already exist...
...Chris Dodd wants to refight the battles about Central America in the 1980s...
...Senator Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, sees the matter as open and shut: "The only thing that is holding Scalia from being confirmed is the fact that he is the son of his father, Judge Scalia...
...Scalia, in his opening statement at his October 2 confirmation hearing, left himself no wiggle room on enforcement...
...Those two facts are directly related...
...Miller...
...Theirs will be two of the hottest confirmation battles in the days to come...
...Foster's nomination languished after he was found to have been less than candid about his past...
...How much pause...
...All of this becomes moot, of course, if the Democrats' stalling gives Zell Miller so much "pause" that he leaves their caucus and hands control of the Senate back to Republicans...
...If confirmed, I pledge to enforce those laws vigorously," he testified...
...Back in 1995, when Republicans slowed the nomination of Dr...
...Kennedy voted against him, but nonetheless praised him as an "outstanding lawyer...
...Reich's position is "critical to our relationships with our partners in the Western Hemisphere at a time when nations in Central and Latin America are looking for leadership from the United States to help them with difficult internal issues, and this is especially true as we assemble a worldwide coalition to fight the war against terrorism...
...Still, if nothing else, Miller's comments offer a reminder to Democrats like Daschle, Leahy, and Christopher Dodd that their party remains in the majority by just one vote...
...Cass Sunstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago known for his liberal views, says of Scalia: "In terms of sheer capacity to do a fine job, he's as good a choice as can be imagined...
...Given the events of the past three months, this would be an extraordinarily harsh claim if made in a congressional hearing...
...But Dodd is doing more than simply keeping Reich from his job...
...Scalia...
...In October, Dodd wrote a long letter to the Wall Street Journal making his case against Reich, at one point suggesting Reich has a history of coddling terrorists...
...The September 11 attacks, Leahy growled, slowed up everything...
...They include Floridians Bill Nelson and Bob Graham, and New Jersey's Bob Torri-celli, all of whom hail from states with influential Cuban-American populations...
...And whether Mr...
...Daschle's comments on ergonomics are almost as disingenuous...
...The deadly anthrax letter mailed to his office didn't help either...
...The confirmation battles for Reich and Scalia are important not only because they concern two highly qualified individuals who would serve the president well, but because they will indicate how strongly George W. Bush will fight for his embattled nominees...
...Still others have given Reich private assurances of their support...
...As Dodd surely knows, Reich is muzzled by the longstanding tradition that nominees remain silent until their confirmation hearing, and then again until they are confirmed...
...Both Scalia and Reich have more than enough votes to be confirmed, and the Democrats won't permit votes on them for precisely that reason...
...But Senate Democrats have found time to honor Barry Bonds for "his spectacular record-breaking season in 2001 and outstanding career in Major League Baseball...
...I think it's always been clear that there are some nominations that are very, very controversial and would probably require 60 votes," he said Friday, referring to the number of votes required to make a nominee filibuster-proof...
...Stephen F. Hayes is a staff writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...Reich is itching to defend himself, but the White House has told him to sit tight...
...The greatest hope of Senate Republicans, administration officials, and the nominees themselves is that January turns out to be Miller time...
...Daschle made no firm commitment to help Reich...
...By late last week, Daschle opened the door just a crack, saying he'd consider a Scalia vote...
...When White House spokesman Ari Fleischer scolded Senate Democrats for blocking presidential nominees at his briefing on Friday, he mentioned only two names: Eugene Scalia and Otto Reich...
...Moments later, he was more emphatic...
...A senior administration official dismisses that claim as "a lie," and recommends that Daschle reread Scalia's testimony...
...It is imperative that we install a strong diplomat for the top Western Hemisphere post at the State Department...
...Not even having the decency to give his appointees a straight up-or-down vote is a shabby and scandalous way to treat a president of the United States," says Sen...
...But the votes are there, of course, and that's why Daschle refuses to permit a floor vote: Scalia would be confirmed...
...At first blush, Democrats' excuses for delays on the president's judicial and executive branch nominees might seem reasonable...
...Zell Miller, who had previously indicated his support of Reich, urged Senate action in an October 18 Washington Times op-ed...
...Scalia is the son of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, and he has been in confirmation purgatory for 33 weeks...
...Scalia has 60 votes is unclear...
...Scalia today," he said...
...Fred McClure, a top congressional liaison for the first Bush White House, says both parties make use of such high-profile battles...
...But sources say that the majority leader, having previously pledged to give qualified nominees a fair hearing, was upset with Dodd...
...We are at war, after all...
...BY STEPHEN F. HAYES WHEN SENATOR PATRICK Leahy gaveled the Judiciary Committee to order on Monday, December 10, he began by marshalling several excuses for his inaction on President Bush's judicial nominees...
...He and his staff have waged a vicious, public smear campaign against Reich...
...Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle voiced the same concern when he notified the Bush administration that its longest-delayed executive branch appointee would not get a floor vote...
...Fleischer, the White House press secretary, chimed in at his briefing last Friday...
...For now, others are fighting for him...
...A Cuban refugee who came to this country as a child, he worked in the State Department's office of public diplomacy in the first Reagan term, and served as ambassador to Venezuela in the second...
...If Daschle is at least sympathetic to Reich, he has shown no such inclination toward Eugene Scalia, Bush's nominee to be solicitor at the Department of Labor...
...With groups like the National Organization for Women and others announcing campaigns to scuttle many of Bush's current judicial nominees, it is clear that these clashes are a preview of more intense fights to come—especially for the Supreme Court...
...Dodd last month told his local paper, the Hartford Courant, "That nomination's not going anywhere, that's the end of it...
...Republicans think they can get around any such procedural maneuver with tricks of their own...
...Actually, to be precise, he first denied that Senate Democrats were holding up Bush's nominations...
...But with numerous executive branch appointees lost in a Senate black hole, and with the federal judiciary losing judges faster than it is replacing them, all of that could change...
...Let's have the vote...
...He has been consistently and strongly anti-Castro...
...Daschle's public statements about the Scalia nomination have an interesting, circular quality...
...Reich is unquestionably qualified for the job...
...Others in the administration and in Congress say that Dodd is single-handedly thwarting their efforts in one of the next possible battlegrounds in the war on terrorism—Latin America...
...He finished, though, right where he had started, telling Novak he "didn't think the votes were there for Mr...
...We wholly reject the notion that Sen...
...Reich was tapped to head the Western Hemispheric affairs shop at the State Department...
...The Bush administration is seriously weighing options—including recess appointments—to allow the two to do their jobs...
...But Daschle has recently hinted at his willingness to forgo a Senate recess for the holidays in order to block the president from making those temporary appointments...
Vol. 7 • December 2001 • No. 15
