Senate Republicans are in a tizzy as a result of Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois put a maintain on President Donald Trump’s nomination for the U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of Florida, and mentioned he’s open to holding up Trump’s different U.S. legal professional nominees.
“[B]ecause of then-Senator J.D. Vance holding U.S. Attorney nominations during the Biden Administration, there is now a new precedent for roll call votes on the Floor for confirming U.S. Attorney nominees,” Durbin defined in a Might 22 assertion asserting the primary maintain.
The response from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, was predictably excessive. He claimed that putting a blanket maintain on all 93 U.S. legal professional nominations—which, notably, has not occurred but—would “constitute an aggressive, unprecedented attack on the American criminal justice system.” Additionally, per Grassley, blanket holds are supposed to “wholly obstruct the confirmation process” and “threaten to undermine the Senate’s advice and consent role.”
And what concerning the half the place Vance did a blanket maintain on U.S. legal professional nominations first? Grassley’s reply is simply to say that Vance’s actions didn’t set a precedent, as a result of it was restricted to a small variety of then-President Joe Biden’s nominees. That could be true—however solely as a result of Vance didn’t take workplace till January 2023, that means lots of Biden’s nominees had already been via the affirmation course of.
What Grassley can’t get round is that Vance explicitly acknowledged on the time that he was putting a maintain on all Biden Justice Division nominees, interval: “I’ve announced today that I will be holding all Department of Justice nominees that Merrick Garland will use, if confirmed, not to enforce the law impartially, which is his duty, but clearly to harass his political opponents.”
Simply in case Vance’s that means wasn’t crystal clear, he went on to say, “I think that we have to grind this department to a halt until Merrick Garland promises to do his job and stop going after his political opponents.”
Guess that wasn’t an “aggressive, unprecedented attack on the American criminal justice system” in Grassley’s eyes—in fact, as a result of it was undertaken by a Republican.
And why was Vance attempting to grind the Justice Division to a halt? As a result of they prosecuted Trump, in fact. Vance introduced that clearly throughout Trump’s arraignment so that everybody would perceive these holds have been purely for revenge. Vance later justified his maintain by saying that Hunter Biden’s plea settlement was too lenient. Gotta hit all these GOP speaking factors, I assume.
Republicans additionally have been nice with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas stalling out dozens of Biden’s State Division nominees in 2021 as a result of he was mad that Biden had lifted sanctions on Nord Stream 2, a Russian-owned fuel pipeline. Right here’s Ted pretending to be involved when justifying this: “President Biden has insisted on giving a multibillion-dollar gift benefiting Russia, hurting America and hurting our national security interests.” And but, again in 2019, Cruz backed Trump weakening sanctions towards Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
It’s acquired to be exhausting to maintain monitor of your political positions when you don’t have any ethical heart and simply connect your self to essentially the most highly effective individual within the room.
And naturally, we will’t discuss blanket holds with out mentioning Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s prolonged tantrum the place he blocked all navy promotions for practically a yr, leaving round 450 individuals in limbo, as a result of he opposed a coverage that allow service members journey out of state, if crucial, to have an abortion. Tuberville’s stunt went on so lengthy that even Republican management tried to get him to knock it off.
Republicans genuinely can’t conceive of a world the place Democrats deploy the identical techniques they do. Democrats are imagined to comply with the foundations, and the foundations are no matter Republicans say they’re.
However as Durbin put it in his assertion concerning the maintain: “As I’ve said time and time again—there cannot be one set of rules for Republicans and another set for Democrats.”
Take pleasure in having to have a full flooring debate and roll-call vote for each one in all Trump’s U.S. legal professional nominees, Chuck. That’s simply the way in which it goes.
