Patrick Leahy: “When the Republicans now protest that the Senate can only look at where a person went to school, and the rating the…”

“When the Republicans now protest that the Senate can only look at where a person went to school, and the rating the newly compliant ABA provides, they are disregarding their own past practices. A young conservative activist spilled the beans quite explicitly recently on the ``Crossfire'' television program in which he said: . . . the second [he] gets in there he'll overrule everything you love-- Everything moderates have worked to enact over the years. That seems to be the badly kept secret, as to why the White House chose Mr. Estrada for this nomination--precisely because of his ideology. Keeping that secret is apparently what motivated the strategy that resulted in his extraordinary lack of responsiveness to substantive questions regarding his views and judicial philosophy. Nobody can look at opinions of the Supreme Court and believe that Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas do not have an agenda, the two stated by the President to be his model for nominees. But I am left with a fear that Mr. Estrada, likewise, comes to this nomination with a hidden agenda. Maybe it is the nature of the beast, but I have never seen so many crocodile tears in my life from the other side of the aisle as they ask: Why are we asking these questions? How can you possibly question this man? How can you possibly question this man? I am going to tell the Senate a secret as to why it is we asked for this.…”