Patrick Leahy: “we have spent a lot of time talking about the Pledge of Allegiance, which is important to the American people, and about…”

“we have spent a lot of time talking about the Pledge of Allegiance, which is important to the American people, and about the Estrada nomination, something that could be settled very quickly if the White House wanted to settle the matter. They have made it very clear that they do not. In fact, they have even gone so far as to publicly reject calls from a distinguished Republican, a Senator in this body, to do so. That has been in keeping with the attitude we have seen more and more on such judicial matters by the White House. They take the attitude that the Senate is irrelevant, that we should simply do whatever they say--and sometimes do. The Senate majority replaced their majority leader at the request of the White House, something unprecedented. And now they seem willing to also take the attitude that if they confirm someone, just do it without even asking questions about the person. The fact is, we would probably have this debate over now if they brought forward the writings of Mr. Estrada, which he said under oath he was perfectly willing to bring forward. If it weren't for that, we would have had the hearings and be finished by now. As I go around the country, my own State or other parts of the country, I have not had an awful lot of people come to me and say: Thank God the Senate is debating one judge. Since President Bush took office we have confirmed 105 or 106 or 107 of his judges anyway. We are going to spend weeks debating that.…”