“The constitution says 51 is all that’s necessary to confirm a Supreme Court justice,” Mr. Leahy said Friday in a telephone interview. “When I was the most junior Democrat in the Senate, I voted for John Paul Stevens. He was a Republican, nominated by a Republican president who was going to be up for election, and we voted for him, and proudly so. I would like to see a return to those kinds of standards.” (New York Times, 4/9/10)
In the 1990s, when Republicans were in the majority, Leahy criticized Republicans for holding up Bill Clinton's judicial appointments and stoutly defended Clinton on impeachment. When Leahy became chairman, he began to hold up judicial nominations himself. He led the rejection by party line votes of two nominees for the Fifth Circuit and demanded from another nominee the memos he had written while working in the office of the solicitor general during the Clinton administration-something never before sought. As ranking minority member in 2003-07, Leahy led filibusters against 10 appeals court nominees-the first in history-which were bitterly attacked by Republicans. (From the New York Times, Adapted from the National Journal's Almanac of American Politics)
In the 1990s, when Republicans were in the majority, Leahy criticized Republicans for holding up Bill Clinton's judicial appointments and stoutly defended Clinton on impeachment. When Leahy became chairman, he began to hold up judicial nominations himself. He led the rejection by party line votes of two nominees for the Fifth Circuit and demanded from another nominee the memos he had written while working in the office of the solicitor general during the Clinton administration-something never before sought. As ranking minority member in 2003-07, Leahy led filibusters against 10 appeals court nominees-the first in history-which were bitterly attacked by Republicans. (From the New York Times, Adapted from the National Journal's Almanac of American Politics)
So Vermont's Senator-for-Life, Patrick Leahy, now calls for a more genteel approval process for judicial appointees. Mr. Senator, you are hereby accused of the crime of hypocrisy! How do you plead?
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