Chuck Schumer: “I, for one, have voted for 96 of the 102 judges President Bush has nominated. We passed over 100 of them. There seems to…”

“I, for one, have voted for 96 of the 102 judges President Bush has nominated. We passed over 100 of them. There seems to be an idea on the other side if we oppose a single judge we are totally blocking the President's program. I argue just the opposite. I argue to my friend, as he well knows because he knows the Constitution better than just about anyone else in this Chamber, with maybe the exception of our good friend from West Virginia, the Founding Fathers wanted debate. They wanted the Senate to have a role. Read the Federalist Papers. That is how it was for many years. To sum up, the White House has started to nominate ideological nominees--not like President Clinton, not like the first President Bush--but when we try to examine the ideology of these nominees, that is wrong. We do virtually no moderates before us. Everyone is from conservative, to way out of the mainstream, and we have voted for most of the conservative judges. Let's be honest about it. This debate was not started by Democrats in the Senate. This debate was started by a White House that is intent on changing the character of the Federal bench, to go way beyond what is the mainstream of America.”