Today in Washington, D.C. - April 12, 2010 - History: Leahy , Obama, & Biden Voted To Filibuster Alito And Others

Congress reconvened today. the Senate resumed consideration of H.R. 4851, a bill to extend unemployment benefits that expired at the end of March, financed with deficit spending. A cloture vote on the bill is scheduled for 5:30 PM.  Before the two week recess, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell offered a version that was paid for with unspent stimulus money (S. 3153). Democrats voted it down 59-40. Democrats also rejected an amendment from Sen. Chuck Grassley to the health care reconciliation bill (H.R. 4872) that would have done the same thing.

With the announcement from Justice John Paul Stevens that he will retire at the end of this Supreme Court term, attention naturally turns to the Senate and whether there will be enough support to confirm whomever President Obama nominates to fill the vacancy. Something that has featured prominently in judicial debates over the last decade is the use of the filibuster. Appearing on Meet the Press yesterday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) declared filibustering nominees, “irresponsible.” Leahy said of filibusters to NBC’s David Gregory, “Actually that’s the lazy person’s way out. The American people pay us and elect us to vote yes or no, not to vote maybe. Every time you have a filibuster, you say ‘I’m not going to vote yes or no; I’m going to vote maybe.’ That’s irresponsible.”

That’s a fascinating stance from Leahy given his enthusiastic support of filibustering a host of President Bush’s judicial nominees, including Miguel Estrada and Charlie Pickering.  And of course Leahy joined 24 other Democrat senators, including then-Senators Obama, Biden and Clinton, and the current Democrat Senate leadership, Sens. Reid, Durbin, Schumer, Menendez, and Murray, for the “irresponsible” filibuster vote against Justice Alito in January 2006. At the time, Leahy was dismissive of concerns about filibustering judicial nominees, saying in a press release, “Filibusters of judicial nominees -- and, in particular, of Supreme Court nominees -- are hardly something new.”

Of course, Leahy wasn’t the only Democrat who spoke up in favor of filibustering judges. At the time, then-Sen. Obama (D-IL) said, “I will be supporting the filibuster because I think Judge Alito, in fact, is somebody who is contrary to core American values, not just liberal values.” Then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos he supported “any possibility of keeping [Alito] off the bench. Democrat Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said, “I would say that all the options are open to us. I wouldn't take it [the filibuster] off the table for sure.” And Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) said, “Because the filibuster has been a time-honored and accepted part of the checks and balances on the president's appointment powers, I will vote against cloture on this nomination.”   So does Sen. Leahy think all of these Democrats in leadership positions, including the current President and Vice-President were being irresponsible four years ago?

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Tags: Washington D.C., US Senate, Pat Leahy, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Harry Reid, filibuster, SCOTUS, nominee
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