Judicial Memo Scandal Heats Up; White House on Sidelines in Debate

Talon News ^ | 1/29/2004 | Jeff Gannon

[Jeff Gannon]

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- An investigation by the Senate sergeant-at-arms into strategy memos from the Judiciary Committee that Democrats claim were illegally accessed and released to the press continues to expand.

Miguel Miranda, an aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, has been placed on leave pending the outcome of an investigation into whether Democrat committee members' computers were illegally accessed.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) also placed an aide on leave last year for his involvement in the matter. The unnamed aide has reportedly left government work.

Hatch has been apologetic about the leak of the memos, and has been quoted as saying, "I'd be the first to admit that it shouldn't have happened, and I'm upset that it did."

Democrats have loudly complained about the way in which the memos became public but have offered no comment about the memos' content. According to the documents that were released to the Wall Street Journal and Washington Times last year, liberal special interest groups met with Democrat senators to develop strategies to defeat President Bush's judicial nominees.

One memo suggested that Miguel Estrada be opposed because "he is Latino" and that he might give a Republican president the opportunity to appoint the first Latino to the Supreme Court.

Another memo shows that Elaine Jones, President of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund prevailed upon Democrats to delay hearings on nominees for the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals until the University of Michigan Affirmative Action case was decided.

Jones announced her retirement two weeks ago after a complaint was filed against her with the Virginia Bar Association for her role in affecting the selection of judges that were hearing a case in which she was a litigant.

The White House has resisted getting involved in the imbroglio despite their protests about unfair treatment of their nominees.

On Wednesday, when asked if President Bush would ask the Justice Department to look into the matter, White House Spokesman Scott McClellan told Talon News, "I'm sure that if there is action that needs to be taken, the appropriate officials will take that action."

McClellan added, "One important priority for this Congress is to move forward on the President's judicial nominees. There are some judicial emergencies that exist, and that's why it's important for Congress, the Senate, to give an up or down vote to those nominees. They're highly-qualified individuals."

Conservative groups who have devoted significant energy and resources to help break the Democrats' obstruction of Bush's judicial nominees are upset with the Judiciary Committee's leadership for cooperating with the investigation without demanding an ethics probe into the memos' content.

Copyright © 2004 Talon News -- All rights reserved.

[upchuck]

It's the content, stupid!

[Interesting Times]

Excellent summary.

It's mystifying to see Senate Republicans support opposition efforts to demonize the whistleblowers who released the judicial memos, while ignoring the minor fact that the Democrats are systematically subverting the justice system.

[diotima]

Don't count your Hatches before they chicken! a wise woman once said.

[Interesting Times]

Well, it's been obvious for years that the leftists are holding incriminating photos of Hatch, quite possibly involving an underage goat.

I'm disappointed with Frist, however.