John Cornyn: “The Senator has characterized what he thinks is happening here in terms of these attacks on qualified nominees, such as…”

“The Senator has characterized what he thinks is happening here in terms of these attacks on qualified nominees, such as Miguel Estrada. I just wish to ask the Senator this. We all know, in order to get to the Senate, we have to run for election; and I just ask the Senator what his reaction is, or whether he would include this in the category of petty partisan politics that he just described in terms of the way Miguel Estrada has been attacked. Most recently, in a fundraising electronic newsletter to potential donors, the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, our colleague from New Jersey, recently acknowledged--he boasted that the current blockade of judicial nominees is 'unprecedented.' But the context in which he used that is to raise money for Democratic candidates to the Senate and the statement we are hearing on the floor regarding the figure 168 to 4, that they have only blocked 4. But at the same time we see they are using these unprecedented filibusters to block the highly qualified nominees of the President. Is that what you would characterize as a political use of this obstructionism of President Bush's nominees?”