An update: ABC News reports that Frist is standing firm on the principle that the nominees deserve confirmation votes. Thus, the Stupid Party has not reached its usual depth of stupidity. Here is the text of the original post:
The Stupid Party is continuing to use judicial nominees as bargaining chips even though it controls the Senate. The latest news, following up on this article is that Democratic Senatorial Leader Harry Reid is negotiating with Bill Frist to allow the nomination of two of the three Sixth Circuit nominations that have been held up by Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow FOR FOUR YEARS in exchange for two concessions: (1) scuttling the nomination of Henry Saad (who is an Arab-American Republican from Michigan -- and Democrats rely on the large Arab immigrant population of Michigan to vote for them) and (2) TAKING THE CONSTITUTIONAL OPTION OFF THE TABLE.
So in exchange for allowing two well-qualified nominees to be confirmed to a court that has been in "judicial emergency" status since before Bush took office, Reid wants a nominee of Levin/Stabenow's own and no leverage for the Republicans to confirm Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown, William G. Myers III (who may be more questionable than some of Bush's other nominees) and Bill Pryor (who the Republicans desert at their peril). In other words, Reid has offered a sucker deal. And The Monk says even money that Frist takes it.
Why? The Republicans' history of trading Circuit Court confirmations for mere votes or nominations of district court judges and the GOP's history of trading agency appointments for allowing Clinton's judicial nominations to go through. See this article for some details.
HT: Cap'n Ed.
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