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Senators spar over judicial confirmation process

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The battle over nominations to the federal bench escalated Sunday as Democrats and Republicans accused one another of playing politics with the judiciary.

Democrats say Republicans want to change a long-standing practice of allowing even one senator from a nominee's home state to block a judicial nomination.

Republicans say there is no change in policy and that Democrats just want to prevent President Bush from appointing the people he wants to the federal bench.

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"Well, they want control of the system," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Fox News Sunday.

Calling it "reprehensible," Hatch said Democrats are counting on an ailing GOP lawmaker to leave office, so they could regain a majority in the 50-50 Senate.

"They're hoping they're going to get control if something happens to Sen. [Strom] Thurmond," Hatch said of the 98-year-old Republican lawmaker from South Carolina.

Democrats said they only want to play by the same rules that Republicans had employed when the GOP was in the minority.

"The Democrats are not asking for anything different than the Republicans insisted on during President Clinton's term," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee panel.

By not signing off on what is called a "blue slip," a home-state senator can signal his or her displeasure with a nominee. Democrats said the objection of even one such senator -- not both -- has been enough in the past to stop consideration of a nomination.

But Hatch, who also appeared on CBS's Face the Nation, insisted the objection of one home-state senator applied only in cases where the White House had not consulted with senators.

Otherwise, he said, the objection of the two home state senators should be the standard. Even then, he said, their views should only be given "great substantial weight" and not be seen as absolute.

Leahy warned that Democrats would not tolerate "a large ideological shift in the federal judiciary."

"The bottom line is this: The federal courts are there for everybody, not just those of the right, not just those of the left. The federal judges are there for a lifetime ... and it better be balanced," Leahy said on CBS.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee staged a walkout last week over the dispute, delaying approval of two key Bush appointments to the Justice Department.

Hatch said there are 97 vacancies on the federal bench.



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