Is the filibustering of Judicial Candidates helping win elections? The Republicans think so. Conclusion to Sean Rushton's article in NRO.
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Judge Pickering’s Revenge
The judicial-confirmation battle has already hurt Democrats.
By Sean Rushton
.......The GOP strategy of raising the judicial issue succeeded unambiguously. Senate Republican polling indicates that the 2002 fight over Pickering brought judicial nominations into the top three factors in the Democrats negatives, helping drive those negatives to historical highs. The judicial debate has remained among the top three negatives every month since, except for the month of the Iraq War, when Democrat war opposition bumped it to fourth. The same polling indicates that in close-fought Senate contests in November 2002 in Georgia (Saxby Chambliss), Missouri (Jim talent), and Minnesota (Norm Coleman), the "Pickering factor" helped motivate Republican base voters as well as swing moderates into the GOP column, thereby returning the Senate majority to Republicans.
Coleman, an extremely savvy campaigner who beat a former Democratic vice president in a generally liberal state, knew what he was doing when he focused voters' attention during his one televised debate opposite Walter Mondale:
"And let me just finish on the judicial appointment's question, and I'll use Judge Pickering, one of the president's nominees, who is supported by the Democratic Attorney General Moore of his state, who is supported by the Democratic-elected officials of his state, who is supported by the local NAACP of the city in which he lived. But because of the same tone that the vice president is expressing here, and is defending here, and the characterizations of right and left, in the end, you had a man supported by those who knew him, who were Democrats in a bipartisan way, supported by the Bar Association, and it didn't get through. And we've got to change that tone in Washington. It's not good for America, and it's certainly not good for Minnesota."
Coleman readily asserts that judicial confirmations in general, and the treatment of Pickering in particular, helped him win his seat.
Even in states where Pickering's nomination was not the explicit issue, the battle over his nomination helped set off a wave of outrage over Democratic attacks on judicial nominations. Sen. Wayne Allard (R., Col.) says that when he reached out to Hispanics in his state, he talked about just two issues: tax cuts and the blockage of court nominee Miguel Estrada. On Election Day his percentage among Latinos had improved by 25 percent, contributing significantly to the tight margin of victory.
Similarly, in Texas John Cornyn faced an uphill battle against a charismatic African-American, Ron Kirk. It wasn't until Cornyn began running ads pointing out that Kirk would side with national Democrats to block nominee Priscilla Owen that Cornyn took the lead.
After the 2002 elections, with a new GOP majority in the Senate, the President resubmitted Charles Pickering's nomination to the Senate for reconsideration. After months awaiting consideration, he was finally voted out of the Judiciary Committee on October 2, 2003 and went to the Senate floor last Thursday. There Democrats decided rather than give him a fair floor vote, they would block him by filibuster.
Running for governor in Mississippi, Republican gubernatorial candidate Haley Barbour, no political novice, immediately seized the Pickering issue to bash his opponent, incumbent Ronnie Musgrove. Though Musgrove — like all state-wide elected Democrats — endorsed Pickering and called for his confirmation, Barbour was quick to jump on the issue and link his opponent to national Democrats:
"They [Senate Democrats] have one thing against Charles Pickering, and this is the story of the Democratic Party today," Barbour said. "Charles Pickering is being filibustered because he is a conservative, pro-life, Republican, Christian. . . . We need a governor who has influence with his national party. . . . His support for Judge Pickering didn't sway any of their votes." Barbour won, even while the state of Kentucky elected its first Republican governor in 53 years.
Now, with new gubernatorial victories in southern states over long-time entrenched Democrats — to say nothing of Sen. Zell Miller's (D., Ga.) scathing new book, A National Party No More — Democrats should be wondering why rural voters, especially in the south, are turning them out of power. With open or vulnerable seats next November in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Florida, North Dakota, Nevada, and South Dakota, Senate Democrats may end up regretting their treatment of Charles Pickering after all.
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