With the Thanksgiving recess scheduled to begin at the end of next week, Senate Democrats are in no hurry to approve nominations sent to Capitol Hill by the White House.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Thursday the chamber may be too tied up with other legislation to get to the confirmation of attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey. A vote on the nomination of a deputy homeland security director is on indefinite hold after the candidate gave an award to an employee at a Halloween party for wearing a costume resembling a black prison inmate.
A Senate committee agreed earlier this week to approve the Mukasey nomination, but so far no vote has been scheduled. President Bush has called for a fast nomination process to fill the position, which has been vacant for more than two months.
But Reid, who said he will not vote for Mukasey, hinted on Thursday he might hold up action until December if Republicans try to block legislation next week.
“What we do this week and next week is in their court,” Reid said. “They have the ability, on a parliamentary basis, to throw kinks into what we are trying to do.”
The Senate is expected next week to take up a $459 billion defense spending bill, as well as a war supplemental bill that would require Bush to set a one-year “goal” for troop withdrawal. Republicans will likely oppose the war supplemental, and one Senate Republican is threatening to try to block a vote on the defense bill.
If Republicans throw up these roadblocks, Reid said, a Mukasey vote might have to wait until “after we get back from Thanksgiving” on Dec. 3.
The Senate also has stalled the nomination of Julie Myers for director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., put a hold on Myers’s nomination after Homeland Security employees complained about her actions during a department Halloween party. At the event, Myers praised a costume by a white employee who had darkened his skin and dressed in prison garb. McCaskill sent a letter to Myers, asking her to explain her actions and said she will keep a hold on her nomination until she answers the query.
Republicans said they agree with the need to question Myers about the Halloween incident, but are baffled by the holdup on Mukasey’s nomination vote.
“I don’t fully understand whatthe nomination for the Department of Justice has to do with funding for the Department of Defense,” said a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
