In the final months of his presidency, George W. Bush on Monday urged the U.S. Senate to approve his nominations for federal court judges. There are currently 34 judicial vacancies in federal courts, a Bush official said, but Democrats in the Senate have rejected several Bush nominees for being too conservative. Speaking in Cincinnati, Ohio to the Ashbrook Center, a conservative policy group, the U.S. president said the confirmation process for judges “has been subject to serious abuse.” “If Democrats truly seek a more productive and cooperative relationship in Washington, then they have a perfect opportunity to prove it, by giving these nominees the up-or-down vote they deserve,” Bush said. According to Bush, the American people “expect the nomination process to be as free of partisanship as possible, and for senators to rise above tricks and gimmicks designed to thwart nominees.” Democrats argue that there were over twice the number of judicial vacancies at the end of Bill Clinton's presidency in 2000, when a Republican-controlled Senate refused to approve Democratic judicial nominees.
