Sen. Shelby puts a "hold" on most (if not all) pending nominations

[Ted King]

Dakota wrote:
What senate rule is he breaking?

Who suggested that he was breaking a formal rule?

The really big problem is that if every Senator were to do exactly the same thing - which they could by the rules - then the Executive branch would never be able to have its nominees for administrative positions approved. Even if the President (whomever that might be) were to pay the ransom metaphorically kiss one Senator's ass to take off a blanket hold, there could be another Senator ready to put on another blanket hold so that he could get butt-smooched, too, and then another and another and then maybe they'd all like to take another pass at getting a wet one on the behind. It is possible, though, that some of Shelby's Republican Senator-mates are somewhat irked at him right now. He "used up" all the nominations at once. Now they can't do their own wheeling and dealing by holding up, say, the nominations for merely a single department of the Executive branch or even wrangle a sweet deal for an Undersecretary of Something or Another. The logic of the thing leads to the strong probability that someone will claim the "blanket hold on all nominees" prize really quickly in the future because if they don't act quickly they may never have a chance to get anything out of the ability to do holds.

Now that's just if we look at the thing serially - one Senator following another Senator with blanket holds. But what if several (or, say, as many as 30) Senators all put blanket holds on at the same time? The Executive branch would have to make deals with them all before getting any nominees approved. And it would be inevitable that sooner or later there would be different Senators each demanding something that would be inconsistent with what another Senator was asking for to take away his hold - so the Executive branch would be damned it they do and damned if they don't.

I imagine there are even more reasons why this is not a good thing.

[$tevie]

Shelby Releases Hold On Obama Nominees

Shelby wants the tanker and the new FBI explosives center to be built in Alabama. Senators frequently block individual appointments, but Shelby's blanket hold was unusual.

Now that he has gotten Obama's attention, Graffeo said, "Sen. Shelby has decided to release his holds on all but a few nominees directly related to the Air Force tanker acquisition."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday, "If you needed one example of what's wrong with this town, it might be that one senator can hold up 70 qualified individuals to make government better because he didn't get his earmarks."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/09...54653.html