Thomas Korologos Quotes
The most important rule for a nominee in a confirmation hearing is the 80/20 rule. If they are talking 80% of the time and you are talking 20%, you’re winning. If its 60/40, it means you are arguing. If it is 50/50, it means you have lost and you’d better throw in the towel.
Thomas Korologos, White House Assistant (Republican), United States Ambassador to Belgium., Advice to Appointees about to go through a Senate Confirmation Hearing, Quoted in New York Times, May 29, 2011
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The Republican controlled Senate whose Judiciary Committee and voted overwhelmingly for the President’s nominee for Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, but the Senate Republicans refused to the nomination up for a vote unless the Democrats and the President would agree to add an abortion ban on money that was to be appropriated for assistance to trafficked and sexually exploited women and girls. Never before had a nomination like this have been subject to this type of blackmail over terms of legislation on a matter that had nothing to do with the nominee or the cabinet position. However, this was the time one of the extreme periods of hyper partisanship in American History.
Senator Conkling was the Republican Leader of the Republican Party and a party boss of the old school. Hays was a reformer, especially about appointments where he generally tried to pick the most meritorious candidate instead of the party loyalists desired by Conkling. There was (and still is) a tradition in the Senate that the Senators from the state of residence of any Presidential appointment had a veto of any Federal appointments in the state. Conkling, in addition to being the party leader, was the senior senator from New York and wanted two party loyalists for the jobs. Hayes appointed the better qualified men and decided to fight for the nomination of his candidates, but expected tha Conkling was strong enough to assure that the Senate would not confirm Hayes’ New York appointments. See {622341} for the outcome.
Senator Roscoe Conkling was the Republican Leader of the Republican Party and a party boss of the old school. Hays was a reformer, especially about appointments where he generally tried to pick the most meritorious candidate instead of the party loyalists desired by Conkling. There was (and still is) a tradition in the Senate that the Senators from the state of residence of any Presidential appointment had a veto of any Federal appointments in the state. Conkling, in addition to being the party leader, was the senior senator from New York and wanted two party loyalists for the jobs. Hayes appointed the better qualified men and decided to fight for the nomination of his candidates, but expected tha Conkling was strong enough to assure that the Senate would not confirm Hayes’ New York appointments. See {622340}. However, Hayes won.
From time to time, the assessment of a prospective Supreme Court justice has depended on an attempt to move the court in a particular direction or to prevent that. This is as opposed to the issue of the competence of the nominee. In most cases, such nominees may not have been the best qualified but they have been extremely competent. In a few cases, such as that of Justice Clarence Thomas, the justice was mediocre and inexperienced at best, but his virtues were his race and his total ideological consistency. Most attorneys can predict his vote in advance. He has never asked a question in oral arguments. See {623452} .
Explaining the difficulty the Bush administration was having filling presidential appointments: Reagan, Ford, Nixon, Clinton
