WASHINGTON — Hopes that the Senate could rapidly confirm some troubled judicial nominations ran into a roadblock Tuesday when one of the moderate Democrats expected to support a vote by the full Senate on the nominees instead called on President Bush to withdraw the 10 candidates he resubmitted last month.
The move by Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), a newcomer to the Senate, surprised both sides in the rancorous debate and came just hours after the Senate Judiciary Committee held a second testy hearing for one of those nominees -- Idaho attorney William G. Myers III, whom Bush has tapped for the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
In a letter to Bush, Salazar said that withdrawing those nominations -- all of which had failed to win confirmation last year -- "would be a recognition that the Congress and the president must work on those matters where we can find common purpose," including "historic deficits, healthcare, transportation and the war on terrorism."
White House spokeswoman Erin Healy responded by noting that "the president has a constitutional responsibility to nominate individuals to the federal bench, and the Senate has a constitutional obligation to provide that up-or-down vote."
Salazar's initiative surprised even people who are intensely involved in the judicial nomination issue. As Colorado's attorney general, he signed a letter of support for Myers last year, as did a dozen other state attorney generals. After he was elected to the Senate, however, he told a Colorado newspaper that he would reevaluate the issue from his new perspective.
Last July, Senate Democrats blocked the nomination of Myers, a longtime lobbyist for mining and cattle interests, who is opposed by environmental, Native American, civil rights and women's groups. The Republicans needed 60 votes to end debate and bring Myers' nomination to the floor, a process known as cloture, but mustered just 53 -- the chamber's 51 Republicans and two of the Democrats.
At the end of Tuesday's hearing, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the Judiciary Committee chairman, said he had 58 votes for cloture -- all of the Senate's 55 Republicans, plus three Democrats -- bringing Myers within "hailing distance" of getting a confirmation vote by the full Senate. Confirmation requires a simple majority of 51 senators.
The Democrats, Specter said, were Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who had voted for cloture last year, and Salazar.
