Harry ReidWASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, one of the Obama administration’s staunchest allies in Congress, announced his opposition Thursday to Michael Boggs’ nomination to the federal bench, dealing a strong if not fatal blow to the former Georgia state lawmaker’s confirmation hopes.
“Somebody should have looked a little more deeply into his record,” Reid said of Boggs, nominated to the U.S. District Court in Georgia. He faced sharp questioning at a recent confirmation hearing into his past support for state proposals to post information online about doctors who perform abortions and to keep the Confederate battle emblem on the Georgia flag.
In his testimony, Boggs said that as a state lawmaker, he was representing his constituents’ views. He said he now believes his vote on abortion doctors was wrong, and he’s glad the Confederate emblem was later removed from the flag.
The Democratic-controlled committee has yet to schedule a vote on the nomination, and some lawmakers submitted questions for Boggs to answer before that can happen. Even if the panel does approve the pick, Reid pointedly refrained from saying Boggs should automatically receive a vote in the full Senate.
At the same time, the administration worked to build support for a second nominee, dispatching departing White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler and her successor, W. Neil Eggleston, to meet with Democratic senators to discuss David Barron’s appointment to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.