No Votes on Most Controversial Nominees

The Judiciary Committee reported Ninth Circuit nominee Norman Randy Smith to the Senate floor by a vote of 10-8. Not so with the much more controversial of the nominees recently returned to the Senate (William "Jim" Haynes, II, Terrence Boyle and William Myers, III), who the Judiciary Committee, not surprisingly, declined to bring to a vote. If the congressional session ends next week, as it is expected to, Democrats may exercise their prerogative to send them back to the President once again, in light of a more than thirty day recess until November 13. Some speculate that in the last week of the session Republicans will push a vote on whether to send DC Circuit nominee Peter Keisler and Third Circuit nominee Kent Jordan to the floor. It is very unlikely that any controversial nominee will be brought to the floor for a vote.