Aides for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell contacted the Judicial Crisis Network to defuse what could have been a public intraparty confrontation over judicial confirmations. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images McConnell tries to defuse conservative anger over stalled judicial nominations

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is moving to head off a public fight with conservative outside groups that have become increasingly frustrated over the Senate's sluggish pace in confirming President Donald Trump's judicial nominees.

The influential Judicial Crisis Network had planned on launching a $250,000 ad buy in Washington on Tuesday calling on McConnell to either change the Senate rules to jam through new judges or keep the chamber in session until Democrats relent out of fatigue, according to sources familiar with the plans.


But before the ad campaign could begin, McConnell's aides contacted the conservative advocacy group — a major ally for Senate Republicans on court battles — to defuse what could have beeen a public intraparty confrontation over judicial confirmations.

"The campaign, including the advertising, is in a holding pattern for now because Leader McConnell's office has reached out and wants to have discussions about how best to proceed in the coming months in order to avoid the kind of judicial confirmations bottleneck that the groups are concerned about," a spokesperson for the Judicial Crisis Network said late Monday.

The spokesperson added: "In the midst of a very busy legislative calendar, which includes the budget and tax reform, it's encouraging to see there is a willingness to sharpen the judicial confirmation strategy. We are hopeful the discussions will bear fruit."

A McConnell spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday night.

Separately, the Conservative Action Project, a coalition spanning from former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) to President Ronald Reagan’s attorney general Edwin Meese, is urging McConnell to stop allowing the chamber to bolt for the weekend on Thursday afternoons and to concentrate on confirming nominees at the end of every week. In a memo signed by more than 100 conservative activists, the group calls for McConnell to “IMMEDIATELY schedule committee and floor action every Thursday and Friday for the foreseeable future” to fill out the executive branch and judicial branch.

Conservatives have increasingly been angry over the Senate’s languid pace of confirming judges, which is exacerbated by Democrats’ use of procedural tools to delay nominations. Typically the Senate returns on Monday evening for a vote and by Thursday afternoon most senators are on planes back home.

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The Senate has confirmed just seven judges this year, including Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. There are 149 judicial vacancies right now, compared to the 108 Trump started the year with. Trump has so far sent nominees for 50 of the current vacancies.

Further delaying the confirmation process, some Democrats have refused to deliver “blue slips” to the Judiciary Committee to allow nominees to advance, including for Eighth Circuit nominee David Stras, who was included on Trump’s short list for the Supreme Court but is being blocked by his home-state senator, Democrat Al Franken of Minnesota.

Judicial Crisis Network wants Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley to schedule hearings regardless of Democratic input. The Iowa Republican has so far declined to do so, although McConnell has endorsed ignoring the blue slip rule for appeals court nominees.

The majority leader has primarily blamed Democrats for dragging out the pace on confirming Trump's nominees.

“Up until now, our friends across the aisle have thrown up one unnecessary procedural hurdle after the next on even the most uncontroversial of nominees,” McConnell said as the Senate confirmed Ralph Erickson to the Eighth Circuit late last month. “In many cases, our Democratic colleagues actually do support the nominees. Just as they do now. This has got to stop. It’s time to end these games.”

Democrats cannot outright block nominees, given the GOP’s 52-senator majority. But they can require procedural votes and drag out the time after each procedural vote for 30 hours.

Last week was a typical Senate week for nominations. The chamber finished confirming four nominees by roll call vote, but Callista Gingrich’s nomination to be ambassador to the Vatican must wait until next week after the Senate reconvenes, because at least one senator is not allowing a quick confirmation under Senate rules. More than a dozen less controversial nominees were confined by voice vote. The Senate is in recess this week.

“The United States Senate behaves as though there are no time limits and no urgency to these matters. They are wrong and we cannot overstate the frustration and growing concern with the Republican Senate leadership for its failure during this entire year to do its work,” the Conservative Action Project wrote in its memo.

The memo was signed by more than 100 conservative groups and individuals, including the Family Research Council, FreedomWorks and Club for Growth President David McIntosh.