Sunstein, President Obama's nominee to head OIRA.
Sen. Lieberman successfully filed today for cloture on the nomination of Cass Sunstein to direct OIRA, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Sunstein and Dawn Johnsen, nominated to serve as the head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, are two of the nominees whose hold-up have drawn the most attention despite their spectacular pedigrees.
From Dave Weigel at The Washington Independent:
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, introduced the cloture vote on Cass Sunstein’s nomination by addressing some of the conservative movement-driven attacks on him and rebutting them with letters from conservative supporters. “This is one of those nomination,” said Lieberman, “that I think has become unnecessarily controversial.” Sunstein’s most eye-popping statements on gun and animal rights? Well, Sunstein is “brilliant and prolific,” and he’s written “some unconventional things.”
According to @senatus, the Senate approved the cloture vote on a 63-35 vote. Among the Republicans who voted for cloture were Senators Bennett, Collins, Gregg, Hatch, Lugar, Snowe and Voinovich.
This means that there will, in the coming day, be an up-or-down vote on Sunstein to head up OIRA.
Unfortunately, three Democrats — Senators Lincoln, Pryor and Webb — voted against even allowing a vote on the president’s nominee. This seems to be fairly remarkable to me.
These three senators voted that the president should not even receive an up-or-down vote on the president’s nominee to run an agency that, though important, is under the auspices of the Office of Management and Budget. This is quite a bit of micromanaging from members of the president’s own party. I’m OK if a Democrat occasionally votes against one of the President’s nominees, but voting against cloture?
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Chris Geidner is the award-winning senior political editor at D.C.'s Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, The American Prospect, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. In 2011, he received the Excellence in News Writing Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his coverage of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found