Senate Finally Moves Ahead With GSA Nomination, Over Bond's Objections

Kit Bond has been delaying a vote on President Barack Obama’s nominee to lead the General Services Administration, Martha Johnson, for months because he wants money appropriated for a federal office building in downtown Kansas City. The LA Times:

[T]he nomination became another example for the Obama administration of how the political process in Washington has been poisoned by politics that often have nothing to do with the merits. Just this week, Obama brought up the nomination in his session with Senate Democrats when he called for both sides of the aisle to work toward pragmatic solutions to problems.

“I don't have a GSA administrator, even though I nominated somebody who was well-qualified several months ago, and nobody can tell me that there's anything particularly wrong with her,” Obama complained. Republicans are “blocking her because of some unrelated matter ... that has to end. It has to end. And the American people want it to end.”

Senators finally confirmed Johnson this afternoon by a vote of 94-2. Bond voted against the cloture motion to allow the final vote.