William H. Frist: “more than 2 years ago, this Senate first took a cloture vote to end a filibuster on the nomination of Miguel Estrada for…”

“more than 2 years ago, this Senate first took a cloture vote to end a filibuster on the nomination of Miguel Estrada for a seat on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Estrada epitomizes the American dream. An immigrant from Honduras, who arrived in America speaking no English, he graduated from Harvard Law School and became one of America's most distinguished lawyers. Mr. Estrada worked for Solicitors General under both President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush. He argued 15 cases before the Supreme Court. The American Bar Association gave him its highest recommendation, and Miguel Estrada's confirmation by a bipartisan majority of the full Senate was assured. But the confirmation vote never came. Instead, Mr. Estrada's nomination was filibustered. Each time we sought a consent agreement to limit debate, the Democratic leadership objected. We asked over and over for a simple up or down vote. If you oppose the nominee, we stressed, then vote against him, but give him a vote. But the partisan minority refused. In open session, they remarked that no amount of debate time would be sufficient and that they would not permit the Senate to vote. After 13 days of debate, with no end in sight, I filed a cloture motion. Every Republican and a handful of Democrats voted for cloture, bringing us to 55 affirmative votes, 5 short of the 60 we needed. Shortly thereafter, we tried again. We got the same 55 votes.…”