That’s the title of my new Confirmation Tales post, which recounts George W. Bush’s extraordinary effort at the outset of his presidency to de-escalate the judicial-confirmation wars. An excerpt:
Bush extended an olive branch to Senate Democrats, and Senate Democrats appeared to accept the olive branch. Two of Bush’s picks, Roger L. Gregory and Barrington D. Parker Jr., were Democrats whom Clinton had appointed to the bench. Clinton had selected Gregory for a seat on the Fourth Circuit in mid-2000. But after the Republican-controlled Senate declined to confirm his nomination, Clinton, in a controversial move, recess-appointed Gregory to a temporary seat on that court. An appointment by Bush would give Gregory life tenure. As for Parker, Clinton had appointed him in 1994 as a federal district judge in New York.
Another part of Bush’s peace offering is that he declined to nominate three candidates who had been opposed by Democratic senators in their home states. Bush also responded to Democrats’ plea for diversity: six of his eleven nominees were racial or ethnic minorities (both Gregory and Parker are African American) or women.
Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle praised Bush: “I’m pleased the White House has chosen to work with us on this first group of nominees.” Patrick Leahy, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, attended the ceremony and thanked Bush for constructively consulting Democrats. The New York Times reported that “leading Democrats in the Senate … seemed satisfied for the moment that their concerns had been treated respectfully by the White House.”
But this era of good feelings vanished 15 days later, when Senator Jim Jeffords announced that he was leaving the Republican party, thus giving control of the Senate to Democrats. Years later, Senate Democrats would have ample reason to rue that they had declined Bush’s invitation to establish a political norm “to provide a fair hearing and a prompt vote to every nominee.”
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