Charles Kuffner updates us on a conflict between the Obama White House and our Texas Senators regarding two federal judicial vacancies in the state:
As we know, there are vacancies in the US Attorney's offices in the Southern and Western district offices in Texas, which will be filled by Presidential appointment. Normally, when the President is of one party and both of a given state's Senators are of the other party, "the primary role in recommending candidates for district court judgeships is assumed by officials in the state who are of the President's party." That's from a report last year by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. Except that as Steve Benen noted, Texas' Republican Senators have refused to honor this practice, and instead have insisted on sending to Obama candidates who have been screened by the committee he and Hutchison have always used for making nominations -- a committee he admits is "heavily stacked with Republican lawyers." Because, you know, it's different when Democrats are in charge.
Read on ....
