From the Evans-Novak Political Report --
Judicial Nominees: With the Democratic takeover of the Senate, four of Bush's nominees to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals -- William Haynes, William Myers, Terrence Boyle and Michael Wallace -- are withdrawing their names from the nomination process. The White House had been willing to renominate all of them, but three had been languishing for years and had no desire to continue the charade. Wallace, the fourth, had gotten a poor rating from the American Bar Association.
This is a reflection of two things: First, Democrats are expected to obstruct judicial nominees as they have since Bush took office in 2001, which is no surprise. Second, after an entire session of Congress in which they all but ignored the issue of judges, Republican leaders in Congress have given nominees little or no confidence that there will be a fight on their behalf. The administration also did very little to push these nominees through a Senate that had a 55-seat Republican majority.
Further evidence of this nominee-confidence problem came with Kenneth Tomlinson's decision yesterday not to seek renomination as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors. Tomlinson was so brutally battered by Democrats throughout his tenure -- as Republicans stood by and watched -- that he did not feel it worth his while to put himself through more misery in the form of confirmation hearings...
