So Daschle wants to play hardball, does he?
Senate Democrats, turning up the heat in their long-simmering feud with President Bush over judicial nominations, vowed on Friday to block all new federal court appointments unless the White House promises to stop installing judges while Congress is in recess.If Daschle tries, Bush ought to ratchet things up by following Randy Barnett's suggestion:
The one real power Republicans have over the Democrats in this fight is the recess-appointment power. It's the only threat that could force Senate Dems to budge. ... The main problem with a recess strategy is that it makes the GOP's best nominees temporary second-class judges. Not only would this fail to realign the judiciary, but it would deter the most promising judicial candidates from accepting. For this reason, recess appointments, as currently conceived, are not a credible threat. Well, until you add a twist.
President Bush could threaten to line judicial openings with committed conservative and libertarian recess appointees, people who are too old, too young, too smart, too conservative, or too burned by previous failed nominations to ever be considered for ordinary judicial appointments. Unlike practitioners who cannot abandon their practice for a short stint on the bench, professors who can take a few semesters off and judges with no prospects of higher judicial office would be ideal. It would be like a judicial clerkship program for conservative and libertarian law professors that can continue as long as there is a Republican president.I'd volunteer. In the unlikely event somebody ever offered me a regular judgeship, I'd say no - I wouldn't expose myself to jerks like Leahy and Schumer in a confirmation fight - but it would be fun to spend a year or two sabbatical on the 9th Circuit. Especially if doing so flipped Daschle, Schumer, and Leahy the bird.
