SCOOP: Manchin tells associates he's considering leaving the Democratic Party

[LetMyPeopleVote]

41. Biden is appointing judges faster than Trump, and most everyone else--for now

If MoscowMitch becomes Senate Majority Leader, Joe will not being appointing any judges

Link to tweet

By the August recess, the Senate had confirmed nine Biden judicial nominees. Between Feb. 25 and Aug. 8, 1969, the Democratic-led Senate confirmed 10 of Nixon’s lower-court nominees—and seated conservative Chief Justice Warren Burger by a lopsided vote 17 days after his nomination to replace liberal icon Earl Warren.

Nixon’s was a less-partisan confirmation environment. During his tumultuous five-and-a-half-year presidency, the Democratic Senate confirmed over 90% of his lower-court nominees (despite two Supreme Court nomination failures).....

Biden’s aggressive nomination agenda and his nominees’ demographic and professional diversity probably reflect an effort to offset Trump’s near-record number of confirmations and may mollify those pressing him—unsuccessfully—to endorse major changes to the Supreme Court.

What explains his success to date?

First, he may be avoiding time-consuming nomination negotiations with Republican home-state senators. All of Biden’s judicial nominees have been in states with no Republican senators (or no senators at all—for example, Washington, D.C.). Yet, as of early September, of the 59 district vacancies with no nominees, 16 are in states with at least one Republican senator. Of those 16 vacant judgeships, all but one of the incumbents had either left active status by March (creating the vacancy) or announced their intention to do so. The one nominee-less circuit vacancy, which the incumbent announced in February, is in red-state Kansas.