Today, in another election year when different parties control judicial nominations and confirmations, a chorus routinely accuses Senate Republicans of blocking Clinton nominees. Insisting that the confirmation process this year follow the 1992 pattern, however, they are not telling the whole story. Instead, they point to the 66 nominees they did confirm in 1992. But liars figure and figures lie. Hatch Judicial vacancies topped 100 for 40 straight months when Democrats ran the Senate in the early 1990s.
Higher vacancies create pressure for more confirmations.
Instead of pulling random numbers out of the air, though, a more useful yardstick compares total annual confirmations as a percentage of the vacancy level at the beginning of the year. Democrats, not Republicans, recently blocked confirmation of more Clinton judicial nominees, rejecting the majority's offer to confirm four more nominees to the U.S. District Court. Democrats rejected the offer. The confirmation facts speak for themselves. Mr. Clinton has appointed 47 per cent of all the judges in full-time service, and appointed them at a faster rate than President Reagan, who even had a Senate of his own party for six of his eight years in office.