Dear Editor:

During the Clinton Administration, the Republican-controlled Senate ratified 373 of Bill Clinton's judicial nominees and rejected only one. However, during President Bush's first year in office, the Democrat-controlled Senate has approved only 43% of his nominees to the federal bench. This has resulted in a critical shortage of judicial personnel, with vacancies hovering near 100 or more for the better part of a year.

The same Democrats now blocking consideration of the President's judicial appointments were highly critical of the GOP for their handling of Clinton nominees. Current Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle complained back in 2000 that there was "a dire shortage" of judges on the federal bench, even though there were substantially fewer vacancies at that time than there are presently under his own leadership.

And current Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy argued for swift approval of President Clinton's judicial candidates in 1997 saying: "A President should be given a great deal of latitude on who he nominates to the Federal courts."

Both Senators should be held accountable in applying their own standards to the current slate of judicial candidates. All Americans ought to urge Senator Daschle, who controls the agenda in bringing nominees to the floor for a vote, to quickly move to consider the backlog of pending appointments to our federal courts.

Sincerely,

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