And the waiting continues

Hours after The News & Observer and the Charlotte Observer queried U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan on Wednesday about the slow confirmation pace of two N.C. judges for a higher court, Hagan went to the Senate floor asking – again – for votes on the nominees.

Once again, she was rebuffed.

In a procedural request to the Senate, Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, sought “unanimous consent” to conduct three hours of debate on the nominations of Judges James Wynn of Raleigh and Albert Diaz of Charlotte, followed by a vote.

President Barack Obama last fall nominated both men for the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Hagan had lobbied for months to expand North Carolina’s presence on the bench.

Wynn and Diaz were recommended by the Senate Judiciary Committee in January. “But for over five months now, the nominations have languished on the calendar,” Hagan said in her remarks Wednesday evening. “It is past time that these two fine judges be confirmed to the 4th Circuit.”

Hagan said she worried that partisan divisions were keeping the vote from happening, Barb Barrett reports.

The request for unanimous consent was immediately objected to by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell pointed out Democrats routinely blocked judiciary nominations during the Bush administration.

Among those was the nomination of Judge Robert Conrad of North Carolina to the same court. “Judge Conrad had the strong support of his home-state senators,” McConnell argued on the floor Wednesday. “He received the blessing of the (American Bar Association), the Democrats’ so-called gold standard, and he would fill a judicial emergency. Yet Judge Conrad could not even get so much as a hearing.”

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, also supports Wynn’s and Diaz’ confirmation. Neither Burr’s nor McConnell’s office said Wednesday whether Burr has lobbied the Republican leader about the confirmation votes for Wynn and Diaz.

But Burr’s spokesman said in a statement that the senator supports Hagan’s efforts in calling for a vote.