For shame !!! # 2

Another shameful result of our dysfunctional Senate and its filibuster-as-obstacle:

Caitlin Halligan, President Obama's nominee as justice for the D. C. Circuit Court of Appeals, has asked to have her nomination withdrawn.

The nomination has been pending since September 29, 2010.   Since that time, Republicans have prevented it from coming to a vote on the Senate floor by using the filibuster, which is nothing more than a hold placed on the nomination and requires 60 votes to move beyond.

It has not been possible to get 60 votes -- just to have an up or down vote -- for the nomination.    And she is not the first, of course.   Their objection:  she has a history of activism for liberal causes.

Excuse me, but what do you call Clarence Thomas when he goes around giving speeches against ObamaCare?  -- and his wife was paid a six-figure salary by a foundation for the defeat of it -- and he did not recuse himself from the case when it came to SCOTUS.  Is it all right for a sitting justice to be an activist if he is conservative -- but you can't even have a vote on the nomination of a liberal because, in private life, she was an activist?

This obstructionism leaves many federal judicial seats vacant.  And then the Republicans turn around and blame it on the president for not having submitted nominations they could approve.   Not a single one of them has been extreme (like the infamous Robert Bork).   They may be more liberal than conservatives want -- but this filibuster travesty is a way for the minority to rule.  And it is just plain wrong.

Shame on Republicans.  And shame on Harry Reid for not changing the filibuster rules when he had the chance at the beginning of this session of Congress.

Ralph