Monday, July 04, 2005
Senate forced a 60-vote hoop on many nominees – 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2005
Post in progress
Would you be surprised to know how many times GOP senators made a President's appointees jump a 60-vote hoop to be confirmed? See their own roll-call votes below to deny cloture.
Fatal filibuster (GOP led) #1 - Henry FOSTER to be Surgeon General - June 22, 1995 (head of the US Public Health Service)Henry Foster - was defeated by a minority-number of votes in 1995 —
Fatal filibuster #2 - Sam BROWN for Ambassador rank appointment - May 25, 1994
43 Republican senators nixed-and-thwarted the nominee.Though 57 members voted to proceed to a vote,
See the roll-call list >>
Sam Brown was turned down for the rank of Ambassador in 1994,
by 42 Senators who did not let the nomination go forward.
You can scan the roll call below, and also scroll down below that to see when Stephen Breyer, who sits now on the Supreme Court, had to surmount cloture to become a federal judge.
Brown nomination (cloture vote, rejected):
As for JUDICIAL nominees, Republicans and sometimes Democrats made them regularly jump the 60-vote hoop.
DID appeals court nominees have to surmount a 60-vote hurdle?
Just ASK Stephen Breyer (now on the Supreme Court), when he was named by President Carter to be an appeals judge
on the 1st circuit in 1980.
BREYER had to overcome two cloture votes.
He did not muster the required 60 votes on the first attempt to allow an "up or down vote."
The 2nd vote for cloture garnered 68 votes (roll call no. 512, 68 -28.)
The vote to confirm Breyer succeeded, 80 -10 (no. 513).
[When he was nominated in 1994 to be a the Supreme Court Justice, Breyer attracted overwhelming support, 87 to 9. Support for Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy and Ruth Ginsberg also was bipartisan and nearly unanimous.]
Republicans and Democrats did make judges and DoJ appointees jump thru the 60-vote hoop for cloture a bunch of times, for Judges Marsha Berzon, Breyer, Richard Paez, Harvie Wilkinson, and Lee Sarokin.
Judge Richard Paez, a Clinton appointee, had to pull more than 60 votes of acquiescence, twice, after he was stalled for 4 years.
Bill Frist voted TWICE to block him, for an "indefinite postponement" (Paez prevailed on that vote 67-31), and in a formal cloture vote (Paez won cloture 85-14). 4 years after being nominated, Paez was confirmed 59-39.
Now he wants time limits on filibusters . . --->
However, BILL FRIST voted against Cloture for Circuit court nominee Richard Paez --after a 4-year wait for
Paez to reach the Floor of the Senate for a vote.
Paez prevailed in that cloture motion.
The Roll call record of the cloture vote can be found here:
Still, one more maneuver to oppose Paez was tried. A motion to further postpone was made the next day.
31 Republican members (including Frist, Lott, Grassley, Santorum, DeWine, Brownback, Kyl, Ashcroft) cast votes "To indefinitely postpone the nomination of Richard A. Paez."
while 67 members voted for the nomination to proceed (not a formal cloture vote).
The vote record is found here.
A vote to move ahead ("proceed") to Paez's confirmation vote was blocked also the year before by 53 Republicans who voted in lockstep (Sep. 1999 roll call).
Walter Dellinger, nominated for Assistant Attorney General by Pres. Clinton, 1993 ––>>
When Walter Dellinger was confirmed as Clinton's Assistant AG in 1993, he needed more than 60 votes of support following 2 failed votes for cloture, as shown by the confirmation roll-call --> 65—34).
The Democrats' initial votes for cloture fell short twice, 58-39, with 39 Republicans voting to deny cloture (2 not voting). However, the vote-counters found that Dellinger had more that 60 eventual votes. In the end, 10 Republicans joined 55 Democrats in approving Dellinger.
Voting against cloture -twice- for Dellinger for the Assistant AG position were Orrin Hatch, Trent Lott, soon-to-be majority leader Bob Dole, Charles Grassley, Lugar, Bennett, McConnell, Nickles, Specter, Hutchison and other Republican senators -- 39 Republicans.
Cloture roll-call (official record) is found here.
