the party of no
For the first time, Senate Republicans blocked a nominee of the Obama administration, mounting a filibuster against the appointment of David Hayes to be deputy secretary of the Interior Department in a dispute over oil and gas leases in Utah.
An attempt to force a final vote on Mr. Hayes’s nomination fell short of the required 60 votes Wednesday morning as Republicans stood nearly united against Mr. Hayes, a former Interior Department official during the Clinton administration.
Republicans were rallied to oppose the nomination by Senators Robert Bennett of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Senators said the cancellation of 77 oil and gas leases near federal parks in Utah showed the Obama administration was not taking the nation’s energy needs seriously.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/