Chuck Schumer: “I think it sort of shows that why Miguel Estrada is being held up has nothing to do with his ancestry but, rather, his…”

“I think it sort of shows that why Miguel Estrada is being held up has nothing to do with his ancestry but, rather, his conduct as he went through the nomination process in a unique refusal to answer questions. I am going to tell my colleague one other story. President Bush has just nominated a woman to the district court in my State, Justice Dora Irizarry. She is Hispanic. She happened to be the Republican candidate for attorney general in this last election. That does not bother me a bit. I called her to my office. I asked her many of the same questions I asked Miguel Estrada. She was forthright. I asked her for two Supreme Court cases with which she disagreed. She named them, expostulated on them. She did not say, canon 5 will not let her talk about them. She did not say: I did not have the briefs, so I could not talk about them--both absurd arguments, arrogant arguments, arguments that show contempt for the Senate. And she is going to be approved, with my wholehearted support, even though she is Hispanic, even though she is more conservative than I am, even though she is a Republican officeholder. So the bottom line is simple: We can fill the bench and increase the number of Hispanic nominees quickly, if we work together, if the nominees would take the process not with contempt but with the responsibility that they should, given the awesome power that Federal judges have. So I hope we will move to Judge Edward Prado. I hope we will move to him soon.”