Harry Reid today said that the people President Bush just renominated for judgeships “have already been turned down in the Senate.” He also said that there has “always been a 60-vote [threshold] for judges”: “Go back decades and it’s always been that way.”
It’s not true that the Senate has turned down these nominees. It has not voted them down. None of them were put to a vote and got less than 50. They just haven’t been able to overcome filibusters.
And it’s not true that it’s “always” taken 60 votes to get through the Senate. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton both got nominees confirmed with less than 60 votes.