On Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 9:21 AM, Scott Stroz <boyz...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I will admit ignorance on this topic but if the Dems have a majority, > how is it the Repubs can cause this many issues with confirmations?
The big thing about the Senate is that everything can take a long time. Most of the Senate work is done via what is known as unanimous consent. If they call for unanimous consent and no one disagrees, it just goes along and that is that. However, if even one person disagrees with the motion (not even necessarily with the underlying issue, just the motion) then a whole slew of rules come into play. You have to file cloture on a bunch of things, which is a notice of an intent to have a vote, that has to go for a couple days before the vote on cloture (a vote to have a vote) which is subject to fillibuster, etc. You have holds, anonymous holds, questions of privilege, motions to recommit, all sorts of crap that allows individual Senators in the minority party to really drag things out. Each one of the procedures takes hours, sometimes days, of the time of the Senate. And, of course, the Senators are also busy having hearings, committee meetings, meeting with lobbyists, not working on Friday's so they can fly home and do work in their home state, etc. As a result of all of this, you've got a limited amount of time in which to push an agenda. If you have a determined opposition, under the current rules, who doesn't want you to move much of anything through, then you have to pick and choose as a majority what things you'll spend your time on. Nominations often take a back seat to legislation in that calculus and when the backlog gets big, Presidents use their recess appointment authority to clear out some of the backlog. Pretty dysfunctional, but that is how it currently stands. Judah ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:322634 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
