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Saturday, January 25, 2003
 

The Grudge Match revisited

Following up on our comments about plans to do away with the "blue slip" tradition, see Hatch Plans to Change Judgeship Policy in Friday's Washington Post.

Howard Bashman says "As I understand it, the two U.S. Senators from Michigan, Democratic Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, are not blocking these nominees on the merits but rather as payback for some slight, real or perceived, that occurred back when Bill Clinton occupied the White House."

It was real.  The Republicans, at the behest of then-Senator Spencer Abraham, did not hold hearings for Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Helene White, nominated by President Clinton in January 1997, and for Kathleen McCree Lewis.  (See the writeup at the Independent Judiciary site.)  Similar blocks were placed for 12 other nominations across the country. 

If you read Sen. Leahy's 1999 comment about the 13 nominations, you would think that it was Orrin Hatch speaking, circa 2002. 

And, as we noted here previously, Abraham's action may well have been payback for similar roadblocks placed by Democrats ten years ago against judges nominated by Bush 41.

For whatever reasons, Senators in the other affected states got over it.  Ours have not -- or cannot.  Hence the current push to do away with the traditional "blue slip" privilege, as the only realistic way to resolve this logjam.  The only other choice, unacceptable on a number of grounds, would be to substitute nominees from other states to the four seats at issue.

What we said last November, in our piece entitled "Grudge Match", bears repeating:

The Israelis and the Palestinians are excellent witnesses to the fact that the practice of making political decisions based on grudges and retribution is a particularly pernicious and destructive process.

Levin's and Stabenow's intransigence runs the risk of doing serious and permanent damage to this state and to its role in the Sixth Circuit -- and to the Senate.


7:04:01 AM    


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