The Hill News

A palpable air of hypocrisy hangs over the Senate these days. Seeking to distract attention from President Obama’s unconstitutional “recess” appointments â€" not to mention the failure of his economic policies â€" Democrats disingenuously accuse Republicans of “obstructing” the president’s judicial nominees. 

In an attempt to create the perception of Republican resistance, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev), has taken the extraordinary step of scheduling contentious cloture votes for 17 nominees who were otherwise on the normal path to routine confirmation, claiming “delay for delay’s sake.” 

Of course, these desperate claims are entirely false: the Senate has already confirmed more of President Obama’s nominees (129) than it did during President George W. Bush’s entire second term (120), and has done so at an almost identical pace (average of 218 and 211 days, respectively, from nomination to confirmation). Indeed, not long ago Reid acknow! ledged that the Senate has “done a good job on nominations,” and a Judiciary Committee Democrat recently noted that we have been “speeding up the confirmation of judges.” 

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