Grassley will attempt to keep Halligan off the DC bench. He still wants to get even.

http://grassley.senate.gov/news/Article ... 1502=31511

That's what being a statesman is all about.

But today, her nomination fell victim to the Republican pattern of obstructionism that puts party ahead of country. Today’s vote dramatically lowers the bar used to justify a filibuster, which had required “extraordinary circumstances.” The only extraordinary things about Ms. Halligan are her qualifications and her intellect.
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So I urge Senate Republicans to end this pattern of partisan obstructionism and confirm Ms. Halligan and the other judges they have blocked for purely partisan reasons.

Many Republican Senators declared that they would never support the filibuster of a judicial nomination—never.
<<snipped>>
When Democratic Senators cooperated to confirm John Roberts to the D.C. Circuit in 2003, we broke the stalemate created by the Republicans refusal for years to even consider President Clinton’s nominees to that court. Like John Roberts, Caitlin Halligan is a highly-regarded appellate advocate with the kind of impeccable credentials in both public service and private practice that make her unquestionably qualified to serve on the D.C. Circuit. She should be confirmed, not unjustifiably filibustered.

Yet again, we see Senate Republicans shifting the standards they use and the arguments they make based on the party of the President making the nominations. They say one thing when President Clinton is in office, flip when the President is a Republican, and flop when the American people elect President Obama. The same Republican Senators who blocked President Clinton’s nominations from even being considered by the Judiciary Committee supported every nomination of President Bush’s to the D.C. Circuit, as they filled the ninth seat, twice filled the 10th seat on the court and went on to fill the 11th seat, a judgeship that they argued was unnecessary when a Democratic President was doing the nominating.
<<snipped>>
With three vacancies on the D.C. Circuit, that is the judgeship that Caitlin Halligan would be filling—not the 11th that Senate Republicans filled just recently, or the 10th that they voted twice to fill, but the 9th.

Republican Senators who just a few years ago argued that filibusters against judicial nominees were unconstitutional and said that they would never support such a filibuster and those who care about the judiciary and the Senate need to step forward and do the right thing.

“I would never filibuster any President’s judicial nominee, period. I might vote against them, but I will always see they came to a vote.”

President Obama can start to get tough with Congress. When they recess he can make a recess appointment. And he can and should then immediately call Congress back into session. Let them spend their Christmas in D.C. The last time that happened? Harry S Truman and the Do-Nothing Congress. (Then Truman called Congress back in the Summer.)

I know Obama threatened something like that, today, but he did not expressly say he would re-convene Congress as the Constitution would allow him to do.

He should. Otherwise he's still a wimp who caves at the most inopportune time to the Republican thugs who have tried to destroy the economy.

I hate to sound like a PUMA, but Hillary Clinton would never have allowed any of this to happen. (And Barack Obama would have been an outstanding Secretary of State.)

Christen, a 50-year-old Washington state native, was named to the Alaska high court in 2009 by then-Gov. Sarah Palin, a choice largely forced on the conservative governor by Alaska's practice of having the state judicial council narrow potential candidates to two. Christen was opposed by some religious and anti-abortion groups because of her previous work as an attorney for Planned Parenthood and in battling Big Oil after the Exxon Valdez spill.

Update As Of Dec 1:
Article III Judicial Vacancies
Circuit Courts---16 Vacancies with 10 Nominees
District Courts--63 Vacancies with 32 Nominees
http://www.uscourts.gov/JudgesAndJudges ... ncies.aspx

<<snipped>>
But with regard to this nomination I hope my colleagues understand that even though we are proceeding under regular order today, it is only because this unanimous consent agreement was locked in before the President demonstrated his monarchy mentality by making those appointments. I am not going to hold this nominee accountable for the outrageous actions of the President.

However, as this is a matter of concern to my Republican colleagues, as it should be for all Senators, we must consider how we will respond to the President and restore a constitutional balance.
<<snipped>>
The appointment power is a shared power between the President and the Congress. When one party turns a shared power into a unilateral power, the fabric of the Constitution is itself violated. And a response is called for.

I would note that the Chairman has in the past stated: “The ‘Thurmond Rule’ is that after July or the nominating conventions no more judges will be confirmed in a Presidential election year unless there is consent.”

In elaborating he explained, “Consent of the majority and minority leaders as well as the chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee came to be the norm.”

He has also noted that “Historically, in the last year of an administration, consideration of nominations slows, the ‘Thurmond rule’ is invoked and vacancies are left to the winner of the Presidential election.”

Update As Of Dec 29:
Article III Judicial Vacancies
Circuit Courts---14 Vacancies with 6 Nominees
District Courts--64 Vacancies with 28 Nominees
http://www.uscourts.gov/JudgesAndJudges ... ncies.aspx

Sen Mike Lee (R-UT) has recently stated he will oppose all of Pres Obama's nominations (not just the judicial) in retaliation for Obama's January recess nominations.
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/1 ... ointments-

11:00 p.m.: Proceed to executive session to consider the nomination of Adalberto Jose Jordan of Florida to be United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has vowed to vote against or hold up all of Obama’s nominees — even those from Utah — in response to a recess appointment by the president. Lee objects in particular to Obama’s appointment in January of Richard Cordray, the director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

12:00 Noon: Proceed to executive session to consider the nomination of Adalberto Jose Jordan of Florida to be United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit.

UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENT
Adalberto Jose Jordan (Cal. No. 437)
Ordered, That following Morning Business on Wednesday, February 15, 2012, the Senate proceed to Executive Session and resume consideration of the nomination of Adalberto Jose Jordan, of Florida, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit, with 2 minutes of debate equally divided and controlled in the usual form prior to a vote on confirmation of the Jordan nomination; that upon confirmation of the nomination, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session. (February 13, 14, 2012.)

UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENT
Jesse M. Furman (Cal No. 366)
Ordered, That with respect to the cloture motion filed on the nomination of Jesse M. Furman, of New York, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, the mandatory quorum required under Rule XXII be waived. (February 15, 2012.)