Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA)
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) is one of the more endangered Republicans up for re-election in 2016, which might have something to do with the fact that he's
blocking a federal judge he recommended, because he hasn't come up with any other reason.
Toomey has long supported Luis Restrepo, who President Barack Obama nominated in November to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. When Restrepo was nominated to be a district court judge in 2013, Toomey ushered him through the process, hailing his record as a magistrate judge and his volunteer work in the community. He boasted about Restrepo being one of three Latino federal judges he helped to confirm, and when Obama tapped him to be a circuit court judge last year, Toomey called him a "superb" choice.
But Toomey still hasn't given his "blue slip" for Restrepo to the Judiciary Committee. That refers to the formal communication senators make to the chairman of Judiciary to give the okay to committee hearings proceeding on nominations from their home states. It's up to the chairman of the committee to decide whether or not to actually require blue slips for nominations the president has made. When he was chair under the Bush administration, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) did away with the process. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) reinstated it, and it appears that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) will also require them. Since Grassley isn't in any big hurry to confirm any more of President Obama's nominees, it's no great surprise that he's following the practice.
It's also not a great surprise that a Republican senator is helping Grassley in that. When the Huffington Post tried to get Toomey to clarify whether he was withholding his blue slip and why, they got very little.
"No, I'm not. Well, let me explain how that works to you. But I've got to run for this lunch," he said, walking away quickly. "But I support his confirmation."
Toomey said he didn't have any new concerns about Restrepo and that he would turn in his blue slip. At some point.
"I will be submitting it at the appropriate time," he said, before disappearing into an elevator.
It turns out that the vacancy Restrepo would fill has become a judicial emergency in the six months that he's been waiting for a committee hearing. That means either that each of the judges on the court have more than 700 cases or that they've been carrying between 500 and 700 cases for 18 months or longer. Which in turn means justice is not being delivered in a timely manner. So now would be an extremely appropriate time for Toomey to go ahead and turn that blue slip in. Except that Toomey has to think about re-election and whether he needs to make sure that he doesn't have a primary challenger. Supporting a Latino nominee of President Obama could certainly be the kiss of death with GOP primary voters. On the other hand, blocking a Latino nominee of President Obama could be damaging in the general election. Of course, Toomey could also just be doing Grassley's (and Mitch McConnell's) bidding by doing his part to obstruct at all costs.
