On day one of their new 41-59 majority, Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama placed a blanket hold on pending executive nominations on the Senate calendar in an effort to win concessions from the Obama administration. By placing a hold, a single senator can stop the Senate from taking up consideration of a particular nomination. Holds can be overcome, but it takes 60 votes to do so.

According to the Federal Times, Senator Shelby is upset over the handling of an Air Force refueling tanker contract worth up to $35 billion which was originally awarded to a consortia led by Northrop Grumman and EADS (Airbus) last year, but later voided after a bid protest was filed by Boeing. Northrop Grumman has an assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama.

In a written statement, Senator Shelby complained Air Force efforts to build new tankers have been stalled for nearly 10 years and "we still do not have a transparent and fair acquisition process to move forward." The senior Senator from Alabama who was first elected in 1986 as a Democrat (he switched parties in 1994)  also wants the Obama Administration to release funds so the FBI can build a Terrorist Explosive Devices Analytical Center in Alabama, the statement said.

While individual holds are not unusual, Congressional scholar Gary Jacobson, a Professor of Political Science at the University of California at San Diego, said he knew of no previous use of a blanket hold.

This isn't government, this is hostage-taking.

While Senator Shelby was placing an unspecified number (Talking Points Memo suggests the number is at least 70) of nominations hostage to his whims, Martha Johnson, the President's nominee to run the General Services Administration, was released from Senatorial captivity after nine months. She was confirmed today by a 94-2 vote in the Senate shortly after it passed a motion to invoke cloture, a key procedural step. That vote was 82-16.

Republican Senator Kit Bond of Missouri placed a hold on her nomination after she was nominated by President in May 2009. Senator Bond's hold was meant to apply pressure on the Obama Administration to approve a proposed federal office building in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.

The story in the Los Angeles Times:

President Obama nominated Johnson in May, but a Republican senator had blocked any vote as part of a dispute over a proposed government building in Kansas City, Mo. GSA serves as the federal government’s superintendent and procurement office.

But the 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.”

Given Senator Shelby's action today, it is hard to foresee the GOP changing their politics of obstruction and giving up their tactic of hostage-taking.

You can send Senator Shelby an email to voice your displeasure here.