Sixteen years ago, President Clinton nominated Ronnie L. White, then a justice of the Missouri supreme court, to a federal district judgeship in Missouri. Amid charges that White’s record showed him to be soft on crime, White’s nomination was defeated on a 54-45 floor vote (a vote on the nomination itself, not on cloture) in the Senate.
Just last week, President Obama renominated White to a position on the same federal district court. White is now 60.