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

[Ted King]

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/02/senate_l...cking.html

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, is blocking Senate action on executive branch nominations, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said this afternoon in an e-mail.

In response to a question from the Press-Register, Reid spokeswoman Regan Lachapelle confirmed that Shelby has placed a "blanket hold" on most pending nominations.

Matt Ygesias asks a good question:

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archiv...t-down.php

Why, after all, should a great nation of 300 million people have a functioning government if preventing the government from functioning can help a lone Senator advance parochial interests?

This is a truly horrible precedent. ANY Senator can do the same thing. This could easily open up a supertanker full of worms. The Senate is becoming more and more dysfunctional.

[mick e]

Pretty soon they will be blocking nominations on the grounds that the Senate Cloak room lost some cufflinks.

[lafinfil]

So much for the party of small government

Kit Bond did the same thing - holding up Martha Johnson's GSA appointment
that had previously been a 94-2 vote until Bond used it to get a new building in KS-MO

His tune suddenly changed when Obama called him out on it during his talk to the Republicans

http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/1728394.html

[mick e]

NYTimes wrote: ...According to his spokesman, Senator Shelby placed the holds over concerns he’s raised about a proposed contract involving a tanker (Northrop Grumman has interests in Alabama); and over financing he’s sought for building a counterterrorism center in Alabama.

Because nothing is more pressing than the PUMMELING Alabama has been forced to endure at the hands of TERRORISTS.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/...-nominees/

[cbelt3]

Been done before, and will be done again.

[Ted King]

cbelt3 wrote:
Been done before, and will be done again.

I tried to find out about that, but didn't have much luck. Who has put a hold on such a large number of nominees at one time in the past?

[Mike Sellers]

Read the first 100 pages of Robert Caro's "Master of the Senate" and you'll see what a sorry state the Senate devolved into by the early 50s. Sadly, we're there again. Where's Lyndon Johnson when you need him?

[mick e]

Press Register wrote:
Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank, could recall only one other example.

In 2003, then-Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, used a blanket hold to prod the Air Force to furnish more planes to an Air National Guard unit. Craig backed down after the maneuver became public, Ornstein said, adding that it affected military officers whose promotions needed a Senate signoff.

"It disrupted a lot of people's lives," Ornstein said.

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/02/sen_rich..._obam.html

Here's hoping Shelby has a "wide stance" on this issue.

[Mac1337]

What senate rule is he breaking?

[mick e]

The "being a huge dick" rule.

And that's quite an accomplishment considering you are talking about the US Senate.