Reid's attempt to advance Oklahoma judicial nominee fails as OK senators vote "present"
August 1, 2012
Washington, D.C.: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid set up a vote on Monday in an attempt to advance Robert Bacharach, an Oklahoma judge nominated for a position on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, past a Republican filibuster. Reid's effort was supported by only three Republican senators and came up four votes shy of the number needed to move the nomination process forward.[1]
Oklahoma Senators Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe, both Republicans who previously had strongly endorsed Bacharach for the federal judgeship, refused to vote one way or the other on Monday. Rather than voting for or against advancing Bacharach's nomination, both senators voted "present," which is "essentially [the equivalent of] not taking a side."[1]
Before the vote, Reid informed the Senate that Coburn had referred to Bacharach as "an awfully good candidate caught in election-year politics," and suggested that if the Oklahoma senators refused to vote in favor of advancing Bacharach's nomination, "blatant partisanship will be to blame."[1] Earlier in July, leading members of the legal community in Oklahoma wrote a letter encouraging Coburn and Inhofe to "use their 'considerable influence'" to move Bacharach's nomination forward, in the interest of seeing a qualified candidate placed in a position that has now been vacant for over two years.[2] However, Coburn and Inhofe conferred about their position before Monday's action and agreed that they would not vote against their party's interests.[1]
Republican senators are currently blocking the advance of multiple Obama nominees in the hopes that Mitt Romney will win the election this fall, gaining the ability to nominate new candidates to open federal court seats. Each party is accusing the other of playing political games.[1]
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