On Halloween, the Republicans used the Senate's weird filibuster rule to block President Barack Obama's nominations for the Washington, D.C., Court of Appeals.
There are three open seats, and one was last occupied eight years ago by Chief Justice Roberts. Nominees are qualified and not extreme; however, they are more liberal than the existing eight-member court, which often makes conservative decisions.
The Democrats argue the court should be fully staffed, a workload issue. Republicans argue the current eight judges can handle the workload. Yet, the Republicans confirmed all 11 seats when Bush was president and Republicans controlled the Senate.
The larger frustration for me is that this is just one example of the continuing Republican strategy of obstruction. This is just like the shutdown. When the Republican radicals couldn't get their way, they turned to obstructionism, not to negotiation. They used every trick they knew to make sure nothing happened, and nothing did. No work was done in some agencies, many people suffered and it didn't save any money either.
So what is to be done? For one, we need filibuster reform, so, nominees cannot be blocked forever by a Senate minority. We also need the Republicans to either adopt a more rational, problem-solving approach or to expect the people to vote them out of office next election.
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Stephen Troutman
Rochester
