The Senate confirmed President's Obama's first circuit court nominee to the bench today, voting 94-3 to send Gerard Lynch of New York to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.
Voting no were Republicans Jim Bunning of Kentucky and Oklahomans Tom Coburn and James M. Inhofe.
As was the case last week when the Senate Judiciary Committee approved two judicial nominees on the first try, Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., could not resist castigating Republicans for delaying judicial nominations.
"We should not have to overcome filibusters and spend months seeking time agreements to consider these (non-controversial) nominations," said Leahy, who, of course, led numerous filibusters himself when Democrats objected to nominees sent up by former Republican President George W. Bush.
Nor could Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the panel's top Republican, resist the chance to decry judicial activism when he rose to speak about the nomination on the Senate floor.
Obama has made eight circuit court nominations so far, but only three are pending on the Senate's calendar awaiting a vote, including his first nominee: David Hamilton of Indiana to the Seventh Circuit.
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