That’s the subtitle of my new Confirmation Tales post, “2004 Senate Victories Pave Smooth Path to Supreme Court Confirmation.”
Of all the victories that gave Senate Republicans a commanding 55-seat majority at the outset of George W. Bush’s second term, John Thune’s upset defeat of Tom Daschle was the most momentous for the Supreme Court confirmations that would ensue, as it showed Senate Democrats that they were on the losing end of the politics of judicial confirmations.
An excerpt:
Controversy over Senate Democrats’ obstruction of Bush’s judicial nominees played an important role in earning Republicans the 55-seat majority that they carried into 2005. Nothing illustrates that better than the Senate race in South Dakota between Tom Daschle and John Thune.
Daschle championed the unprecedented campaign of partisan filibusters that Senate Democrats launched against Bush’s appellate nominees in 2003…. Thune made Daschle’s obstruction of Bush’s judicial nominees a major part of his campaign, so much so that Daschle observed in a national debate on the television program Meet the Press that “John keeps coming back to this.” In that debate, Thune got very specific:
Let’s talk about the people that you’re not giving a vote, Tom…. You know, Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen, Charles Pickering, Bill Pryor, Miguel Estrada, Bill Myers–you go right down the list. These people didn’t get a vote. Now it’s one thing to say that, you know, you’re confirming a certain percentage, but these people deserve a vote. The filibuster has never been used in the history of this country to deny appellate court nominees an opportunity and an up-and-down vote in the United States Senate. Under Tom Daschle, that is the first time that has happened.
Daschle resorted to lying in response, “That’s not true.”
Throughout the campaign, Bush, Cheney, and Senate Republican leader Bill Frist joined Thune in slamming Daschle for leading the filibuster of judges. Thune himself was astonished by the impact that judicial nominations had in his campaign:
It was amazing to me. Early on I’d make speeches about openings on the Supreme Court, or getting these appellate nominees confirmed, and people would look at me like, “Who cares?” Toward the end of the campaign, I’d make that speech and it was one of the biggest applause lines.
On Election Day, Thune eked out a victory over Daschle, 50.6% to 49.4%.
I hope that you enjoy the whole post, and I invite you to sign up for Confirmation Tales.