WASHINGTON — President Obama has a green light to start filling the courts with more liberal nominees under the new math in the Senate, now that Democrats have invoked the “nuclear” option against filibusters.
“The pressure now will be on the president to nominate far more progressive judges than he has in the past,” said Jim Manley, a longtime aide to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, who carried the liberal banner through decades of brutal confirmation fights.
“Anybody can get on the bench now unless they’re a pedophile or something serious like that,” said Makin Delrahim, former Republican staff director of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Bush Justice Department official.
“You now have a completely different task for the selection of judges based on the Senate confirmation process,” he said.
“The most extreme wings of the party are going to control this process,” predicted Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “Can you imagine a Supreme Court fight where all you needed was 51? You’re going to pick the hardest of the hard. Because who’s pushing the majority? Their base.”
Previously, with 60 votes needed to advance a nomination, Obama couldn’t get a nominee through the Senate without gaining the assent of a handful of centrist Republicans like John McCain. Many never made it.
Now, after Democrats engineered a change in precedent Thursday known as the “nuclear option” for its brashness, Obama can afford to lose a handful Democratic senators and still get a nomination through on a simple majority of 51.
It’s a situation that empowers Democrats in more conservative states, who would have the power to put the brakes on a nomination if they banded together.
In choosing from a file of potential judges, Obama now “goes from middle of the bullpen to the extreme left,” predicted one Senate GOP aide. One dynamic that will act as a counterbalance is the revenge factor.
Should Republicans capture the White House and the Senate, they may be emboldened to push through judges in the mold of conservative Supreme Court justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.