Who Blocked This Nomination?

The Albany Times Union, picking up on the AP report by Dina Cappiello, claims that Republicans blocked the nomination of David Hayes to be Deputy Secretary of the Interior.

Republicans blocked President Barack Obama's pick for the No. 2 job at the Interior Department Wednesday in a dispute over oil and gas leases, but Democrats signaled they would soon make a second attempt to win confirmation.

The 57-39 vote was three short of the 60 needed to advance David Hayes past Republican objections, and made him the first of Obama's top-level nominees to be sidetracked on the Senate floor.

Hayes, an environmental lawyer picked by Obama to serve as deputy secretary of the Interior Department, held the same post during the last three years of the Clinton administration. He also led Obama's natural resources transition team, responsible for naming a new Interior Department head.

Republican opposition to Hayes' nomination was led by Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah, who expressed anger over Secretary Ken Salazar's recent decision to revoke 77 oil and gas leases in his state. He was joined by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who raised questions about the administration's plans for oil and gas development and objected to recent reversals of several Bush-era rules on endangered species and mountaintop mining.

The problem is that the facts don't bear this out. Democrats failed to get the votes because three of its members were not present.

The final vote was 57-39, which means three members were not present and didn't vote. Those three members were Sen. Ted Kennedy, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, and Sen. John Kerry. All are Democrats. Had two of the three been present to cast their votes, Hayes's name would have gone up for a confirmation vote.

Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, also voted against the measure as a procedural point to enable him to bring Hayes' nomination before the floor at a later date.

That's four Democrats who did not vote for Hayes' nomination, and yet it is the minority party that are obstructionists?

The AP should be ashamed of itself for this baseless accusation and the Times Union should take down that headline because it is baseless and wrong. The measure was put up to a vote because it was expected that it wouldn't pass - and the Democrats were hoping to embarrass the Republicans.

UPDATE:
To be absolutely clear, the only reason that this measure didn't pass was because Sen. Harry Reid chose to move this nomination even though he lacked the votes. He either couldn't count, or expected that the failure to garner enough votes would be blamed on the GOP. Well, on that score, Reid won.

The facts, however, are what they are and they show that it was Democrats who failed to vote for Hayes. After all, Republicans John Kyl and Olympia Snowe voted for the measure. That makes Reid's math mistake all the more egregious - to say nothing of the misleading AP headlines.