2007: Democrats Stall Extremist Nominee to Supreme CourtDemocrats vowed to fight President Bush's nomination of right-wing extremist conservative Hillary Rodham Clinton as new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. "She's way out of the mainstream," said Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, citing Clinton's reported desire to keep the number of abortions as low as possible, and her noted belief in God.
DNC Chair Howard Dean noted that Hillary had not only supported the war in Iraq, but had voted in favor of the $87 billion Iraq reconstruction and military funding package. "She's to the right of MoveOn.org and that's unacceptable to this party."
The nomination of former Senator Clinton came as the Democratic filibuster of judicial nominees entered its 24th month, and was seen by some as a conciliatory measure by President Bush, whose Republican Party has been unable to break the filibuster despite a freshly-won 61-38-1 majority after the '06 debacle for the Democrats. However, with the help of maverick Republican Senators McCain, Hagel and Voinovich, the Democrats have maintained their effective veto over the process.
Joe Lieberman sounded a cautiously optimistic note in the morning, but by mid-afternoon had joined his partisans in expressing doubt. In an interview on Fox, Lieberman expressed the opinion that Mrs Clinton would be a fine nominee. But after other Democrats voiced their dismay, the Connecticut senator acknowledged that perhaps once again, the rest of his party would settle for obstructing President Bush. "They're apparently holding out for Lynne Stewart," said Lieberman, referring to the New York lawyer serving a 20-year sentence for supporting terrorism.
