Patrick Leahy: “earlier today I discussed my concerns about the nomination of William Myers to a lifetime job as a judge on the U.S.…”

“earlier today I discussed my concerns about the nomination of William Myers to a lifetime job as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Before we vote on the motion of Republican Senators to invoke cloture on this nomination, I would like to highlight a few things. This nomination was reported out of the Judiciary Committee on April Fool's Day over the objections of every single Democratic member of the committee. The Republican majority has failed to bring this nomination up for a vote during the past 4 months, knowing that Mr. Myers is strongly opposed by the widest coalition of citizen groups that have ever opposed a circuit court nominee in U.S. history. Suddenly last Friday, Republicans filed their cloture motion to end a debate that had not even begun about why President Bush nominated such an anti-environment activist for a judgeship. They set debate for a time they knew few were scheduled to be here on such short notice. It seems that they are afraid of a robust and thorough debate on the merits, or lack of merit, of this nomination but they are eager to try to create a political issue out of it. I do not think it is too skeptical to suggest that Republicans are bringing this nomination up now only to try to politicize the judicial nominations issue further in advance of the Presidential nominating conventions.”