Tom Harkin: “I thought I would take the time now to talk a little bit about the nomination of Miguel Estrada for the D.C. circuit…”

“I thought I would take the time now to talk a little bit about the nomination of Miguel Estrada for the D.C. circuit court. I have to say that there has been a lot of nonsense bandied about in the Chamber on the nomination and the idea of whether we are holding something up. Facts are bothersome things, as they say. What some people say in the past may come back to haunt them in the future. It was Mo Udall, former Congressman, who coined the wonderful phrase. He always said: O Lord, let me always utter kind and humble words for tomorrow morning I may have to eat them. I was looking back through the record. The current chairman of the Judiciary Committee in 1997 addressed the Utah chapter of the Federalist Society. This is what the current chairman of the Judiciary Committee said: The Senate can and should do what it can to ascertain the jurisprudential views a nominee will bring to the bench in order to prevent the confirmation of those who are likely to be judicial activists.”