Note the liberal MSM bias throughout.....
GOP Poised to Send Bush Nominees to Senate
Yahoo! News: Top Stories
By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The Republican-controlled Senate is moving closer to a showdown over whether Democrats can continue filibustering President Bush's judicial nominees now that two of the White House's favored court appointees are scheduled for final committee approval.
Texas judge Priscilla Owen and California judge Janice Rogers Brown, who were blocked by Democrats during Bush's first term, were up for approval by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
Owen, nominated by Bush for a seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, and Brown, seeking a lifetime slot on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia, secured committee approval during Bush's first term.
However, they were blocked from confirmation by Democratic filibuster threats and were renominated by the president after he won a second term in November. Democrats consider the nominees too conservative.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has threatened to ban judicial filibusters to stop Democrats from blocking them again, and has been working to secure the 50 votes he needs from his Republican caucus to make the rules change.
It requires 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster.
In an attempt to make Republicans reconsider that plan, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid has vowed to slow or halt Senate action on much routine business if Frist follows through with his threat to force up-and-down votes in which nominees could be confirmed by a bare majority of the 100-member Senate.
Without GOP defections, Democrats can't stop Brown, Owen and North Carolina judge Terrence Boyle from advancing to the full Senate for approval since the Judiciary Committee has 10 Republicans and eight Democrats.
However, Democrats have promised to continue to filibuster all seven nominees they blocked during Bush's first term. Democrats blocked 10 judicial nominees from confirmation through filibuster threats. Three withdrew and Bush renominated the rest.
Boyle was never filibustered by Democrats because his nomination was blocked in committee by then-North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.
Another of Bush's blocked nominees, Idaho lawyer William Myers, already has been approved by the Judiciary Committee. But conservatives would rather see the final showdown come over Brown, Owen or U.S. Appeals Court Judge William Pryor, who was given a temporary appointment by Bush after he was blocked by Democrats.
Pryor's nomination is expected to be advanced by the Judiciary Committee next week.
Conservatives during the last Congress accused Democrats of being anti-minority for blocking Brown, who is black; anti-women for blocking Owen, and anti-Catholic for blocking Pryor.
Activists plan a similar tactic this year, with Frist planning to deliver a taped message to Christian conservatives on April 24 who say Democrats are "against people of faith" for blocking Bush's nominees.
But Democrats say they blocked Owen, a Texas Supreme Court justice and a friend of the president's, because her opinions and rulings are overly influenced by her pro-business and anti-abortion personal beliefs.
Brown, who serves on the California Supreme Court, was described by liberals as being a conservative judicial activist who inserts personal opinions in her work to come to decisions limiting abortion rights and corporate liability and opposing affirmative action.
Republicans say they are fine judges and should be confirmed to the nation's second highest courts.
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