2001 US press briefings
The James S. Brady Briefing Room
1:35 P.M. EDT
MR. FLEISCHER: Good afternoon. I have two personnel announcements. The President intends to nominate William Henry Lash III to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Market Access Compliance. And the President has nominated Susan Morrisey Livingstone to be Under Secretary of the Navy.
And with that --
Q How do you spell the first name, Ari?
MR. FLEISCHER: William Henry Lash III, Roman numerals; and Susan Morrisey Livingstone, Under Secretary of the Navy. And I'm pleased to take your questions.
Q Ari, will the judicial nominations be sent up tomorrow, and can you give us an update on where the process is that had been sort of bogged down because of Democratic objections in the area of consultation and the like?
MR. FLEISCHER: The President will have an announcement to make very soon as far as the first round of judicial nominations he will be sending up to Capitol Hill. We'll be putting out tomorrow's schedule a little later this afternoon, and so that may have information that you're looking for. Just wait to see what the final information is this afternoon's guidance.
Q On the question of dealing with Senate Democratic objections.
MR. FLEISCHER: I was just getting to that. It was a two-part question. The President takes very seriously the Senate role of advice and consent. And throughout this process, at the President's direction, White House Counsel Al Gonzales has been talking with senators of both parties and will continue to talk to senators of both parties about the process.
The President wants to make this a cooperative, collegial process. That will be his intention, and that's how he will proceed with all his nominations for the Bench.
Q Ari, what message are you sending to Senate Democrats who may threaten to blue-slip some of your nominees without a valid reason?
MR. FLEISCHER: The President's message is that the nominees he is going to send up are going to be people that the nation will be proud of. There are going to be people who will not legislate from the Bench, there will be judicial scholars, there will be people who will represent the nation well serving on the courts. And he hopes to take that message to Democrats and Republicans alike.
He hopes that the process will not become politicized, and he is also concerned about the vacancies on the Bench and what vacancies on the Bench mean for denial of justice, as cases are not heard, where cases are stretched out or people have slow access to the courts because there are judicial emergencies in effect, and where there are not sufficient justices or judges to serve in various regions in circuit courts or district courts. So the President is going to move forward and work very closely with the Democrats and Republicans.
Q And if the process does become politicized, what is he prepared to do?
MR. FLEISCHER: The President is going to have a first round of announcements to make. Then I think it will be interesting to see how well received they are. The president hopes they will be received well; and that way, the process of filling up the courts can begin so people's justice is not delayed or denied.
Q Ari, on the subject of politicizing this process, Democrats would say it already has been and this White House has been part and parcel of that politicalization, A, by taking the ABA out of the system and by giving a green light to a new standard, this blue slip process in the Senate itself, where under the old system, you had to have two blue slips from each of the state senators or the senators from the states from which the nominee came. Now it's merely one. And by doing that, you have shifted the whole groundwork in dealing with the judicial appointees.
MR. FLEISCHER: As far as the American Bar Association is concerned, the American Bar Association is and will be involved. The only question is, is there any one group in America that should have a preferential role earlier than all other groups and above all other groups.
So the American Bar Association will have an equal role of all the other groups who are entitled and the President will welcome their input and their ideas once the nomination is made.