Bush is the most successful president in getting Federal Judges approved. The facts makes the Dem rejection of extremely right wing judges – only letting medium to far right wing judges through – look like a wimpy policy.
"The vacancy rate on the federal bench is at its lowest point in 13 years, because of a recent surge of judges nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate," writes David Savage of the Los Angeles Times.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-judges6nov06,1,5833088.story?coll=la-news-politics-national Vacancy Rate on Federal Bench Is at a 13-Year Low The Senate has confirmed 68 of Bush's nominees this year. Experts say partisan complaints over four judges blur the picture.
By David G. Savage, Times Staff WriterWASHINGTON — The vacancy rate on the federal bench is at its lowest point in 13 years, because of a recent surge of judges nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate.The intense partisan battle over a handful of judges aside, Bush has already won approval of 168 judges, more than President Reagan achieved in his first term in the White House. And with 68 of his nominees winning confirmation in 2003 as of Wednesday, President Bush has had a better record this year than President Clinton achieved in seven of his eight years in office. <snip>
Experts who track federal judgeships say Republican complaints about a Democratic filibuster of four judges have obscured the larger picture."The Bush administration has been spectacularly successful in getting the overwhelming proportion of its judicial nominations confirmed," said political scientist Sheldon Goldman at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. "There are only a relative handful being filibustered and held up. And this contrasts with the dozens of Clinton nominees who were held up by the Republicans in the last six years of the Clinton administration. The truth is the Republicans have had an outstanding record so far." <snip>
The Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee lists 39 vacancies among the 859 seats on the U.S. district courts and the U.S. courts of appeal — a 4.5% vacancy rate.This is the fewest number of vacancies since 1990. During Clinton's term in office, the number of vacancies on the federal bench was never fewer than 50, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.."During Clinton's final six years in office, Republicans controlled the Senate, and they refused to confirm more than 60 of his judicial nominees<snip>