It could be that I just don't understand much about the way they do things up in Washington, especially my United States Senate. Maybe this is so partially because I haven't been watching the proceedings, which are broadcast on C-Span2. Well, this afternoon I just happened to be channel surfing and...lo and behold, when I hit C-Span2, it showed the U.S. Senate in action... not in adjournment and not in one of those endless, annoying quorum calls with the pretty classical music playing in the background and the screen showing a procession of inane tweets from the legislators. No, instead a roll call was taking place for a floor vote: the President's nominee for a U.S. District Court Judge seat in New Jersey. The nominee, Michael Shipp, was already a Magistrate Judge in that state. None of this meant anything to me, except for the fact indicated on the screen that Obama had nominated him half a year ago, back in January. So after the initial roll call, I hung around to see how close the voting would go and whether Shipp would be confirmed. After all, there must be SOME significant reason to put off the President's nomination for six months!
As the votes started coming in, and the assorted senators began filing into the front of the chamber (some faces being unfamiliar to me), the ayes and no's were sounded. And everyone was voting "aye"! Even the most extreme Obama haters there. Apparently, this judicial candidate was noncontroversial and generated no opposition whatsoever to his nomination for this position.
I cannot fathom why slam-dunk votes of this type are needlessly delayed. Either the opposition party is using parliamentary tactics to bring to a grinding halt the ENTIRE legislative agenda of the majority party, with Shipp's nomination a collateral casualty, or the process itself of moving ANY legislative activity through that body is severely flawed. I suspect a little of both is true here. Any thoughts from you, my valued reader?
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