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The Leahy Rule

By AndrewHyman

The so-called "Thurmond Rule" has been described online by Ed Whelan, and Curt Levey, and also by the scribes over at Wikipedia. According to this alleged "Thurmond Rule," the confirmation process is supposed to stop near the end of a presidential term. Sen. Leahy is now planning to use this purported "Thurmond Rule" to stall circuit court confirmation proceedings that are already way behind the historical average (see March 20 article in CQ Today). In 2000, though, Leahy said:

We cannot afford to follow the Thurmond Rule and stop acting on these nominees now in anticipation of the presidential election in November.

Let's call that the Leahy Rule. Incidentally, Sen. Specter has explained that Thurmond never really said what Leahy attributes to him (see an excerpt from Specter's statement below the fold).

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Full post as published by ConfirmThem on March 22, 2008 (boomark / email).