Letter: Democrats not ahead of pace

Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2001 | 8:55 a.m.

The headline of your Nov. 23 editorial on judicial confirmations -- "Tough talk, but bereft of the facts" -- applies to the editorial itself.

Your claim that Democrats today are "ahead of the pace" compared to 1989 and 1993 requires improperly comparing confirmation totals rather than confirmation rates. Yet presidents do not make the same number of nominations at the same time each year.

In 1989, President Bush began nominations in August and the Senate confirmed 65 percent of his 23 nominees. In 1993, President Clinton began nominations in August and the Senate confirmed 59 percent of his 47 nominees. This year, President Bush began nominations in May and the Senate has confirmed just 28 percent of his 64 nominees. Though they have more to choose from, Democrats are confirming nominees at less than half the pace of previous administrations.

Even your misleading focus on confirmation totals no longer works. The Senate in 1993 confirmed 28 judges by Dec. 1, 56 percent more than this year.

Ahead of the pace?

You quote then-Majority Leader Trent Lott in 1998 regretting he moved so many Clinton nominees. Despite those regrets, the Republican Senate approved 63 judges that year, 31 percent higher than the annual average over the past 20 years. Ahead of the pace?

Looks like you are "bereft of the facts."

THOMAS L. JIPPING Washington, D.C.

Editor's note: The writer is director of the Judicial Selection Monitoring Project for the Free Congress Foundation, a conservative group.