Agghhh....Orrin Hatch is on CSpan right now

[La_Serpiente]

Call him in about the Blue Slips during the Clinton administration.
That was totally unethical of him.


CALL-IN NUMBERS
Republican: [phone]
Democrat: [phone]
Others: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

[in_cog_ni_to]

1. Ack!

:puke: He's one Repug that makes me :puke: one, among many!

[NewJeffCT]

2. blue slips

Can you fill me in on that?

[w13rd0]

3. blue slips...

...are anonymous holds on judicial nominations, a tactic used MANY MANY times by Hatch and his fellow wingnuts to hold up Clintons judicial appointments, and when the GOP took majority, it changed the rules to end blue slipping...

[La_Serpiente]

5. 30 HOURS IN THE SENATE

30 HOURS!!!???!!! Give me a break.

[meegbear]

4. From People For the American Way

Senate Republicans also had significant influence after Clinton judicial nominees were selected. However, like other Congressional procedures, the blue slip policy can be-and has been-misused. After he assumed control of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the mid-1990s, Senator Hatch began to rigorously enforce a blue slip policy under which nominations could not move forward without the consent of both home state Senators. In 1998, this policy was made explicit on the blue slips themselves, which stated that “o further proceedings on this nominee will be scheduled until both blue slips have been returned by the nominee’s home state senators.” Suddenly, a policy that had helped to force consultation and consensus was transformed into a vehicle for partisan obstruction.

Specific information on whether and when Senators returned blue slips is not made public. Nevertheless, it is clear that the strict blue slip policy effectively stopped any and all action on a number of Clinton nominees. For example, President Clinton nominated Helene White from Michigan for a seat on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on January 7, 1997. Then-Senator Spencer Abraham of Michigan reportedly failed to return his blue slip for more than three years. During that time, the Judiciary Committee took no action whatsoever on the nomination. By the time Abraham was finally pressured to return the blue slip late in 2000, Hatch had indicated that no further action would be taken on appeals court nominees that year. President Clinton renominated White in 2001, but President Bush withdrew the nomination in March without any action by the Senate. As a result, the Hatch-led Judiciary Committee took no action on the White nomination, not even scheduling a hearing, for more than four years.

Senator Jesse Helms used his blue slip to block any action on all African-American nominees to the Fourth Circuit for more than four years. No African-American has ever been confirmed for a seat on the Fourth Circuit court of appeals, which covers North and South Carolina and several other southern states. Starting in 1995, President Clinton submitted several African-American nominees to that court from North Carolina, including James Beaty and James Wynn. Reportedly as a result of Helms' failure to return either of his blue slips, however, neither of these nominees even received a hearing from the Judiciary Committee. Not until President Clinton's 2000 recess appointment of Roger Gregory, whose nomination also failed to receive a hearing, has an African-American ever served on the Fourth Circuit.

Other Clinton appeals court nominees, mostly women or minorities, were reportedly blocked by home state Republican senators withholding their blue slips. Examples included: Jorge Rangel and Enrique Moreno of Texas, and Kathleen McCree Lewis of Michigan. Other appeals court nominees, such as Barry Goode of California, Elena Kagan of D.C., and Allen Snyder of Maryland, were blocked even when there was no home state Republican senator to object. Overall, although not a single Clinton-nominated appeals judge was voted down by the Senate, blue slip and related delays and blockades meant that the Senate approved only 61% of President Clinton's appellate court nominees, compared with 87% of those nominated by President Reagan. In 1999-2000, 19 out of 32 Clinton appeals court nominees — roughly 60% — were blocked from receiving a vote.

http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=7623

[La_Serpiente]

8. Here is an organized chart timeline

of the Republican actions during the Clinton administrations.

http://www.calpundit.com/archives/002501.html

[0007]

6. How can c-span have Hatch on without a counter part?

......and on and on and on he goes. Orrin can't say anything new but knock the dems and praise his party.

[KharmaTrain]

7. Zero Credibility

What a friggin' hypocrite about the partisanship in the Judiciary Committee...who the hell started that in the first place?

Wasn't it Hatch who held up all sorts of Clinton appointees incluing Henry Lan Lee?

It's this goon who made abortion a litmus test in the first place. Sheesh, I'm almost tempted to turn over to Imus.

[nostamj]

9. "wouldn't mind punching them out" (dems)

one disgusting POS.

[kcwayne]

10. Hatch is a traitor that should move to Calcutta

Hatch is currently sponsoring a bill to raise the quoto for H1B and L1B visas in this country on behalf of the Indian computer consulting firms that want more opportunity to replace American IT workers.

He should be shot for taking money from these firms at the expense of unemployed citizens of this country that cannot compete with Indian labor that is willing to work in this country for $5000 per year.

If he had any ethics, he would be pressuring the Indian government to allow unemployed American engineers and IT people to work in India.

[bambo53]

11. Somebody please call in!

and rip this asshole a new one!

[Mel]

12. lying

and whinning. It ought to be fun (for a while) to watch him during the 30 hours and see if he blows a vein on Wednesday!
Give it up Hatch, no amount of spin you put on this works, the people aren't buying it.

Judgeships are up and your going to cry on the Senate floor for 30 hours?

Meanwhile unemployment of the people you work for is up to well over 6% and that's not counting the people that have taken pay cuts!

Why can't we get 30 hours for healthcare, cost of living wage, what are you guys going to do about jobs going overseas?

Hatch says he wouldn't mind punching out some Democrats.
Caller says Democrats should be tried for treason? :wtf:

[La_Serpiente]

13. Hmmmm.....

Kind of weird caller by Reagan Democrats.

CAN'T HE FRICKING STOP TALKING??!!!?????

[KharmaTrain]

14. A Plant

then Hatch claims he was once a liberal Democrat? Yea, and the Pope went to a Madrassa.

[0007]

15. Hatch sez he use to be a liberal democrat......

but could never go back to that type of politics? Huh?

One callers laid down the true facts and Hatch had the balls to sit there and twist and lie and weave to sell junior in a very calm voice.

The caller said the democrats had rejected only four judges, Hatch said it was 13 by his count.

[BarbaRosa]

16. Not many callers

They just let him blather on and on and didn't take many calls. :puke:

[carrowsboy]

17. LYING HYPOCRITE!!!!!

Woke up to this ass speading his lies!

"Democrats are for huge government" - So why has Bush increased gov't???

"Democrast are for entitlement programs, Republicans believe you have to work to help yourself" - Unless you are an airline, Halliburton or military contractors, huh???

"Our budget is 80% entitlement programs, when we hit 100% we will be a true socilaist society" - LIE

Done pissed me off this morning!

[trof]

18. That's why I changed channels

before he came on.
I can't stand watching that smug bastard.