Senate Republicans may or may not mount a filibuster of Dawn Johnsen, but if they do, it will be a numbers game. Assuming Al Franken is still all tied up in court, Democrats will need at least two Republicans to cross over and vote to end debate on her nomination or it may go nowhere.
One of those Republicans could be Arlen Specter who’s the ranking member on the Judiciary committee and the only member of that committee who didn’t vote against moving the nomination to the floor. More specifically, he didn’t vote at all. He took a pass, saying he’d have to meet with Johnsen personally before he made a decision.
Well, I’ve just confirmed that the two did meet at the end of last week, and, with that all wrapped up, Specter is…still undecided about the appointment.
Specter is apparently still reviewing her writings about reproductive rights and, notably, Bush era torture and OLC opinions and is continuing to withhold judgment.
By way of background, Specter was not a member of the Gang of 14, but had few kind words for Democrats when they filibustered President Bush’s judicial nominees several years ago. He’s also facing a primary challenge from conservative Pat Toomey, and he’s facing considerable pressure to guard his right flank. For instance, he recently voted for a spending freeze just weeks after having voted to pass the president’s $700 billion stimulus spending bill, and he recently reintroduced legislation that would replace the current tax code with a flat income tax.
