From the Mailbag

A reader wants to know:

Using filibusters to block appellate court nominees is appropriate when those judges are controversial or out of the mainstream, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., said Wednesday.
"The president clearly has the option of having all of his judges approved by a very large margin," Johnson said. "But where they are highly controversial, I think a 60-vote margin is the proper approach to take."

I did a google search of Tim Johnson and judges and this is the best I could come up with.

I believe the reason Thune beat Daschle was his ability to show South Dakotans how Daschle was voting and behaving as our representative in Washingon. A large part of getting that message out was from websites like yours.

Maybe I'm naieve but  why isn't Johnson being held accountable for his votes to continue judicial nominee filibusters? I just watched an informative interview on Fox News and they went down a list of nominees and why they were considered "controversial" by the Dems. It would be nice to have someone ask Johnson point blank, especially one that is considered pro-life, the judges name and why he is against them. We know the Argus Leader isn't going to ask so I don't understand why someone doesn't show up at his townhalls and put it the question directly to him as a citizen. It took Thune and a campaign to finally expose Daschle. I don't know why we have to wait every six years to ask questions on what and why they are doing in Washington. It seems they get elected and have 5 years to be liberal and vote against South Dakota values.

Thanks for the website,

Redstone

Good Question.  Sen. Johnson has flown under the radar for a long time thanks to that big liberal lighting rod Tom Daschle.  Even with Sen. Daschle out of the picture, Johnson continues to be overshadowed by Sen. Thune and Rep. Herseth.  Certainly Sen. Johnson's visibility, or lack thereof, has its advantages, one of which is lack of scrutiny.  Of course, Johnson's positions hardly vary from those of the prior senior Senator.  Senator Johnson needs to answer questions as to his litmus test for judges and how he determines that a particular nominee requires 60 votes.  As Prof. Schaff noted below , Roe v. Wade is the test Democrats apply to judicial nominees.  If a nominee does not hold the save view of Roe, and abortion as the Dems, they will be fillibustered.  If a pro-life stance is what Sen. Johnson views as out-of-the mainstream, he ought to look at the Zogby results Prof. Schaff posted below.  Of course, he need not look at poll results to know South Dakotas prevelant feeling on abortion.  It is time for Sen. Johnson to answer why his view of the "mainstream" is out of touch with South Dakota.