I just read an article on CNN regarding Obama vs. Bush regarding who has had it easier on court nominations.
The author of the article must be an idiot!
Excerpt:
Washington (CNN) - According to the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, President Obama has had an easier go than his predecessor when it comes to federal bench nominations.
A look at the record indicates that Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama is right, by two percent.
Wednesday, Sessions countered Democratic complaints about a slow-moving confirmation process when he said, "I do believe we ought not to unnecessarily delay persons, but I would want to say that the alacrity by which President Obama's nominations are moving far surpasses anything like the difficulties President Bush's nominees had. I've been here. I've seen it. I know that to be a fact."
As of the time he made that speech, 20 out of Obama's 60 nominations had been confirmed, coming out to 33 percent, according to records from the Library of Congress. Looking at the same point in the administration of George W. Bush, April 21, 2002, 45 out of 146 Bush nominees were confirmed, giving Bush a 31 percent batting average.
SNIP
"The time from vacancy to nomination during the first 14 months of the Obama administration is longer than under the Bush administration at the same point, especially for circuit nominees," says Brookings' Russell Wheeler.
Full article here:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/22/obama-vs-bush-who-had-it-easier-on-court-nominations/?fbid=0CG8YjNcju2#more-100852FIRST of all, calculating the percentage of confirmations to total nominations is IRRELEVANT.
Secondly, the only numbers that matter are: Obama has 20 confirmations compared to Bush's 45 confirmations (for the same time period).
Thirdly, considering Bush had 146 'nominations' compared to Obama's 60 - a person would come to the conclusion that the Senate Judiciary Committee would have less documents to peruse for Obama's nominations and therefore it is OBAMA that should be in the lead of 'confirmations'.
Finally, I cannot believe that CNN would take Senator Session's SPIN on this issue and write up an article that says Sessions is right. He is not right, he is wrong. He is out in the media trying to spin the facts because Democratic Senator Whitehouse and Senator McCaskill called the republicans out on the senator floor Tuesday (April 20th) due to their obstructionist tactics regarding judicial nominations!
Whitehouse on the senate floor: Sen. WhiteHouse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yny0_Hu-1U0 Whitehouse & McCaskill on the senate floor:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/21/gop-objects-and-objects-a_n_546064.htmlThe republicans are not going to be able to spin themselves out of this due to the FACTS, that is unless the media helps them by not doing their jobs as INTELLIGENT journalists! Grrrr. ;(