Dodd and Lieberman Should Get to Work

It was reported recently that Senator Dodd is considering whether to run for president in 2004. It's also well known that Senator Lieberman is planning to run for President, and he has been crisscrossing the country raising money for his potential campaign. I believe that instead of worrying about 2004, Dodd and Lieberman should pay attention to the work they were elected to do as United States Senators. One thing in particular they should concentrate on is convincing their Democrat leadership in the Senate to stop blocking all of President Bush's nominations.

It is common knowledge that there is a dire situation in our judicial system, with many vacancies in our courts and federal departments going unfilled. According to Supreme Court data, there are 94 vacancies in the 862-judge federal court system, 28 of them circuit courts. It was reported that four of the seven vacancies on the 6th Circuit Court were declared "judicial emergencies." The Senate has only confirmed 6 of the 28 Appeals Court nominations (21%), and overall has confirmed only 27 of the 64 Bush judicial nominations (42%). Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist complained in his year-end review that the delay was jeopardizing the health of our federal circuit court system, and said that "the Senate ought to act with reasonable promptness and vote each nominee up or down."

Dodd and Lieberman's colleague, Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat from Vermont, said in 1997: "A president should be given a great deal of latitude on who he nominates to the federal court. Not only does it damage the integrity and the independence of the federal judiciary by holding judicial nominations hostage where nobody ever even votes on them, but I think it damages the integrity of the U. S. Senate." Leahy's words were easy for him to say when a Democrat was in the White House. Now that a Republican is president, the Senate Democrats ought to consider again Senator Leahy's remarks.

The Senate Democrats are not even allowing some of the nominees to reach the floor for a vote of the entire Senate, even after they have cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee. Rather than act to help the Americans who depend on the overburdened, understaffed circuit courts for rulings involving their liberty and livelihoods, the Senate Democrats have played partisan games.

Besides doing nothing to speed up the confirmation process, Senator Dodd has participated in the obstruction as well. When Dodd prevented a hearing on President Bush's nominee (Otto Reich) to be Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, Bush was forced to make a recess appointment during the Christmas holiday break. The lack of a person in this position for a year reduced America's effectiveness in dealing with the debt problems in Argentina, guerilla movements in Columbia and Peru, and the crisis in Venezuela.

It seems that Dodd and Lieberman do not care how their obstruction of presidential nominations affects our institutions or U.S. policy. My letter (by fax) to Senator Dodd has gone unanswered for over two months, and when I called Senator Lieberman's office about these concerns, his legislative aid hung up on me. Instead of running for president, grandstanding on Enron and obstructing Bush nominations, I urge Senators Dodd and Lieberman to get to work and earn their taxpayer-funded salaries.