Hatch and Frist Fire Whistleblower

Insight on the News ^ | 03/30/04 | John M. Powers

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Republican leaders have broken a promise they made to expose the shocking contents of memos exchanged among Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats, says Manuel Miranda, the former GOP aide who is the whistle-blower at the center of the so-called Memogate scandal. Miranda tells Insight in an exclusive interview that both Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) broke clearly stated promises to expose collusion between top Democrats and special-interest groups seeking to thwart President George W. Bush's nominees to federal courts.

"Sen. Hatch told me specifically, point blank, that if I resigned he could then talk about the substance of the memos," Miranda tells Insight. "I was told by the Frist office that, if I resigned, the Democrats would basically calm down" and the Republicans could make the memos public. Miranda said the same promises were made to conservative groups that assist the Republicans in gaining support for judicial nominees.

At the heart of the scandal, which many believe has been spiked or overlooked by the mainstream press, are thousands of Democratic memos that were viewed and subsequently downloaded from a computer server shared by both Democrats and Republicans on the Judiciary Committee. These memos, which were not password protected, outlined Democratic talking points and strategies for blocking judicial nominees at the behest of special-interest groups.

In November some of the memos were leaked anonymously to the Washington Times and Wall Street Journal for publication. In the memos that were published, readers were exposed to behind-the-scenes dealings on Capitol Hill that included appeals by a special-interest lawyer to Senate Judiciary Democrats to delay the nomination of a particular judge long enough for the interest group to gain a favorable ruling, and threats to make funding disappear if certain judges ever reached the bench.

Promises to expose this weren't kept, but were they actually made? Kay Daly, president of the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary, works with Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans on the nomination process. Daly says she knows of the many meetings between Miranda and Hatch and Frist, and confirms that the understanding between Senate Republicans and grass-roots organizations such as hers was indeed that once Miranda resigned an investigation would ensue that would focus on the content of the memos.

Daly says she suspects Hatch gave in to Democratic demands that someone be held accountable for what they were spinning as theft and Kennedy was comparing with the Watergate break-in.

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I am concerned that this issue isn't getting more coverage. I'm outraged that the democrats are getting away with tampering with the judicial system of this country. Regardless of political persuasion, this needs to go further than an investigation by the SAA.