Chuck Schumer: “I say this to my friend from Utah. He said his colleagues on the other side thought Paez might be a judicial activist.…”

“I say this to my friend from Utah. He said his colleagues on the other side thought Paez might be a judicial activist. They disagreed with some of the ways Judge Paez thought. Fair enough. I did not agree with them. Nobody called them anti-Hispanic. We have had charges on this floor that to oppose Mr. Estrada makes one Senator or another anti-Hispanic. That is my point. That is demeaning to this process, and it ought to stop. The Senators who are opposing Mr. Estrada are no more anti-Hispanic than those who opposed Mr. Paez. By the way, there were 39 Republicans who voted against him. Are those 39 Republicans anti-Hispanic? We would laugh at that. If someone on this side of the aisle tried to raise that charge, there would be a fury over there. Correctly so. If someone had never voted for a Hispanic nominee, if President Clinton had not nominated Hispanic nominees, then maybe there would be someone bringing up this argument. But the record is to the contrary. In terms of the criteria of Hispanic nominees to the bench, this side of the aisle has a far better record than the other side. I think those comments are demeaning. Those comments are wrong. Some on the outside may make them. We cannot help that. This is a free country. God bless America. They should not be made on the floor of the Senate. I implore my colleagues to cease. They know it is wrong. It is not even an effective debating technique.”