Dianne Feinstein: “In his letter, Judge Gonzales suggested I based my decision to vote against Mr. Estrada on 'inaccurate or incomplete…”

“In his letter, Judge Gonzales suggested I based my decision to vote against Mr. Estrada on 'inaccurate or incomplete information on certain issues that you have deemed important to the Estrada nomination.' Needless to say, I disagree with that assessment. It is not because I was misinformed that I voted against this nominee. It is because this nominee did not inform the committee enough. Simply put, Mr. Estrada did not adequately answer the questions put to him in his hearing. Particularly with a nominee who is so young, has such a very limited or nonexistent written record, and has been accused by so many of being too ideologically driven to serve impartially on the second highest court in the land, it is incumbent on each Member of the Senate, in our advise and consent role, to thoroughly examine the nominee's thought processes and to determine whether the nominee can and will be an impartial judge. In this case, it was impossible to make such an assessment because the nominee himself would not let us.”