WASHINGTON – After 40 hours of nonstop talking organized by Republicans to protest filibusters on judicial nominees, Senate Democrats added two more Friday to the list of judges they have stalled successfully.
Democrats declared the longest uninterrupted Senate debate in 15 years a victory for their side. Republicans warned that the Democrats' methods could come back to haunt them.
In each of three successive votes Friday morning, Republicans secured 53 votes to advance the judicial nominees to a final confirmation vote. That was seven short of the 60 needed to overcome Democratic resistance.
As in similar confrontations on judges this year, the only Democrats to side with the 51 Senate Republicans were Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Zell Miller of Georgia.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats were energized by the GOP-staged talkfest. "The other side seems to think they can just intimidate us," he said. "We are not going to let the president take the judiciary and move it out of the mainstream."
Santorum: No More Leftist Judges 'Ever!'
But Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said some Republicans already were plotting revenge for the day when a Democrat president tries to get his judges approved. His colleagues are saying, "We'll have our opportunity someday, and we'll make sure there's not another liberal judge. Ever!" Santorum said.
With votes of 53-42, 53-43 and 53-43, the Senate failed to move the nominations of Texas judge Priscilla Owen and California judges Carolyn Kuhl and Janice Rogers Brown to appeals court positions.
Bush, who met with the three nominees Thursday at the White House, said the Senate action "is inconsistent with the Senate's constitutional responsibility and is just plain wrong."
"Once again a partisan minority of senators has thwarted the will of the majority and stood in the way of voting on superb judicial nominees," he said in a statement.
It was the first such vote for Kuhl and Brown, increasing to six the number of appellate court nominations stalled by Democrat filibusters. The other four are Owen, defeated for a fourth time, Mississippi judge Charles Pickering, Alabama Attorney General William Pryor and Hispanic lawyer Miguel Estrada. Estrada dropped his nomination after losing nine filibuster votes.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said that despite losing the votes Republicans had communicated "to people around the world that we today cannot accept the unprecedented" filibustering of judicial nominations.
Democrats defended their record of joining in the approval of 168 judges while objecting to only six. They pointed out that during the Clinton administration Republicans used other methods to keep Democrat-backed judges off the bench, including refusing to give nominees committee hearings necessary for the full Senate's consideration.
The appellate courts can be a steppingstone to a Supreme Court seat, increasing Democrat scrutiny of nominations in dispute. Democrats claimed they did not represent American public opinion or legal precedent on such issues as abortion, racial set-asides and religion in public affairs.
Only Pro-abortion Women Need Apply
The message to the president, said Sen. Debby Stabenow, D-Mich., after the three female nominees were rejected, is that "just because a nominee is wearing a skirt, ... it does not mean she respects the values and priorities of American women."
"The other side has now established a litmus test of political philosophy, and if they don't meet it, they don't cut it," said Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho.
The debate was originally scheduled to go 30 hours but was extended through a second night, to almost 40 hours, at the request of several junior Republican senators who wanted more time to talk. It was the longest continuous debate since a 57-hour marathon on Senate election campaign legislation in 1988.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said the talkathon had cost American taxpayers almost $82,000 an hour, or nearly $2 million a day, in Senate operating expenses. "This circus is not only wasting time, but also wasting taxpayer dollars," Lautenberg said.
Democrats, allotted half the debate time, used it to defend their position on judges and assail the administration's economic policies.
