Harry Reid: “the procedure in the Senate, one of long standing, is that we as Senators have the right to keep what we believe is our…”

“the procedure in the Senate, one of long standing, is that we as Senators have the right to keep what we believe is our ability to have our voices heard. In this instance we have said now for some time, if the majority wants to go forward on Miguel Estrada, we should have him come back before the Judiciary Committee, answer questions, and with him bring the memos from the Solicitor's office. They have been supplied on other occasions. It has been mentioned in the Record specifically how it was done. I am not here, though, to debate the qualifications of Miguel Estrada. I am here to talk about my becoming a vocal critic of the American Bar Association rating process for judicial nominees. I have to say, frankly, I have never been a big fan of the American Bar Association. I know they do some good things. I have lost significant respect for the operation of rating judges. I do this not in any way to denigrate Miguel Estrada. My statement I make today is in no way to denigrate Miguel Estrada. I have said before, Miguel Estrada graduated from Harvard. He could have graduated at the bottom of his class at Harvard and he still would be one of the more credible, more qualified people to go to law school. It is hard to get into Harvard. But he did not graduate at the bottom. He was one of 71 editors they had at the Law Review, and he was one of their better students. This is in no way to denigrate the academic qualifications of Miguel Estrada.”