For those of us who feel Obama has too often embraced the Republicans while bypassing the Democratic base, we keep hoping the day will soon come when the President will purge his administration of Republicans and Republican lites and replace them with real Democrats, but instead we get this:
Last night, the Senate confirmed six U.S. Attorneys, five of whom were the preference of Republicans. Traditionally, nominations for U.S. Attorneys are presented to the President by the senators of the district. If the district's senators are not in the President's party, representatives from the House who are in the same party are consulted.
President Obama however, has chosen to ignore tradition and nominate U.S. Attorneys preferred by Republican senators, against the advice of House Democrats.
Jeralyn - TalkLeft
(emphasis mine)
As reported by Main Justice:
The Senate confirmed six U.S. Attorney nominees last night–much to the chagrin of some Democrats.
While none of the nominees faced major opposition on the Senate floor, five of the nominees were endorsed by Republicans, with the White House overlooking Democratic Party preferences.
This comes at a time when Obama is trying to convince a number of progressives and independents that his new populist tone is for real.
As Main Justice explains:
Typically, when the White House nominates U.S. Attorneys and both senators are in the opposition party, it will consult House members from its own party in the relevant district’s state. However, President Obama chose to disregard Texas House Democrats in a move that left Rep. Lloyd Doggett angry. After Obama named the four judges in late June, Doggett blasted the White House, accusing it of having “disregarded its previous agreement and our hope for more change in the Texas justice system after decades of total Republican domination.”
If this is the new "progressive" Obama, then I'm missing it...
1:53 PM PT: After reading the comments this afternoon, I think I should explain why I wrote this diary.
I believe that our party is being destroyed from the inside out. People who do not share traditional Democratic values are diluting our most core principles. When we elected President Obama, we assumed he would CHANGE the corruption that has overtaken D. C. That is what he promised. To pretend that he didn’t make that promise is to be disingenuous at the least. And we assumed that he would like a Democrat. Many of us feel he has done the opposite: he has acted more like a Republican than a Democrat.
It is not wrong to ask our President to honor the party that he represents. He has been repeatedly condemned for siding with the Republicans instead of siding with the Democrats. That’s easy enough to understand…and this act was one more occasion where he stiffed his fellow Democrats and bowed to the Republicans. That is inconsistent with the image that he is trying to peddle to the base at the moment. Many Democrats have long said “Don’t trust him: he’s in campaign mode and he will promise anything to get re-elected, but once he is in office he will act totally different.” This seems to reinforce those feelings.
To answer sewaneepat: the point of this article was to demonstrate that Obama is still bowing to the Republicans instead of honoring the wishes of the people who elected him. I made no claims that all of the appointees were Republicans. I made the point that all but one were nominated by Republicans, which was in opposition to the wishes of his fellow Democrats. And to many of us, that makes those nominations suspect.
1:56 PM PT: And this might be helpful if you missed it in the comments:
From Main Justice: The Senate confirmed
Robert Lee Pitman for the Western District of Texas;,
Sarah Ruth Saldaña for the Northern District of Texas;
John M. Bales for the Eastern District of Texas;
Kenneth Magidson for the Southern District of Texas;
David Barlow for the District of Utah; and
S. Amanda Marshall for the District of Oregon
All but Marshall were recommended to President Obama by Republican senators — much to the dismay of Democratic congressmen like Reps. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) and Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas).
Barlow was recommended by Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee. Barlow served as Lee’s lead counsel after Lee took office in January.
The four Texas U.S. Attorney nominations were recommended to the White House by Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison. They were not on the list the Texas House Democrats, led by Doggett, sent to the president in October 2009. And Doggett was not pleased when the nominations were announced.