Ex-GOP Aide Sees Trouble Ahead for Dems on 'Memogate'

(CNSNews.com) - Manuel Miranda, the former Senate Republican lawyer at the center of the "Memogate" controversy, said Democrats have a lot to lose - both in the Senate and at the ballot box - by continuing to obstruct President Bush's judicial nominees.

Miranda, speaking Tuesday to the Georgetown University College Republicans, said he doesn't regret reading Democrat strategy memos on the nominees. Under growing pressure, Miranda resigned in February as counsel to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee.

"The bottom line is that there's a much bigger story here," Miranda said. "I think the Democrat memos are going to be reviewed. I think that there will be an outcome in the Senate. And I think there is already an outcome in places all over the country."

He expressed optimism that conservatives would remember the Democrats' tactics when votes are cast this November. The controversial memos document the influence that liberal interest groups had with Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"If this helps Republican voters and Republican grassroots folks communicate to Senate Republicans that they need to have more backbone, then I think it will be well worth it," Miranda said when asked if reading the memos was worth the consequence of resigning.

Miranda credited Senate Republican victories in 2002 - Saxby Chambliss in Georgia, Norm Coleman in Minnesota and Jim Talent in Missouri - to the frustration voters felt about nominees like Miguel Estrada and Priscilla Owen. Estrada later withdrew himself from consideration, but Owen has waited to be confirmed since she was nominated nearly three years ago.

Ever since the memos were leaked to the Wall Street Journal and Washington Times last November, the story has centered more on Miranda than the actual content of the memos. He said the contents of both the published and unpublished memos are shocking.

Miranda rehashed how unpublished memos demonstrate the tactics used by Democrats to delay the confirmation of Dennis Shedd to a seat on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Shedd, a district court judge from South Carolina, was eventually confirmed, 55-44, on Nov. 19, 2002.

But Miranda said the vote was delayed until after Election Day on Nov. 5, 2002, to keep money rolling into the coffers of Democrat candidates.

"Unpublished memos record the reason they didn't give [Shedd] a vote is because it would affect the North Carolina election," Miranda said. "That is to say that trial lawyers have communicated that they did not want Judge Shedd on the 4th Circuit ... because he was unfriendly to trial lawyers' causes."

Miranda added, "Other grassroots groups communicated that the confirmation of Judge Shedd would basically be a wet blanket on the campaign funding and campaign support in North Carolina."

Fox News reported in February that Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, requested Shedd's confirmation vote be delayed, according to one of the memos. At the time, Democrat Erskine Bowles was waging a campaign against Republican Elizabeth Dole, the eventual winner.

"It's not true," said Mike Briggs, Edwards' press secretary. "It's utter nonsense. For starters, the Senate has confirmed the vast majority of the president's nominees to the courts. And in a handful of cases where the president has sent up people whose records indicate they won't follow the law, the senators have exercised their constitutional prerogative to provide their advice and withhold their consent."

The North Carolina Senate race wasn't the only time liberal interest groups promised financial support in exchange for votes against a Bush nominee, Miranda said.

When Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) was facing a runoff election against Republican challenger Suzanne Haik Terrell on Dec. 7, 2002, Miranda said Landrieu made sure she flew back to Washington to cast a vote against Shedd two weeks before Louisiana voters went to the polls.

"When all her money was depleted, it came to groups like People For the American Way, the NAACP, NARAL, and all the liberal groups to basically funnel all the money she needed for the second election," Miranda said. "And in response, they asked her to do something. In the middle of an election with very little time, Landrieu flew up to Washington and voted against Dennis Shedd."

Miranda said the memos demonstrate the difference between Republicans and Democrats and each party's relationship to interest groups.

"Democrats and Republicans really function differently on this issue," Miranda said. "The relationship between Democrats and the special-interest groups that support them is really hand in glove. But Republicans do not have that same relationship. Their relationship with outside groups is really arm's length and full of mutual suspicion."

Miranda said critics who point to Republican obstructionism on President Bill Clinton's judicial nominees should take note that during his eight years in office, Clinton had nearly as many judges confirmed as President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

When asked about the long-term outlook of the judicial confirmation process, particularly for a Supreme Court nominee, Miranda expressed optimism Democrats wouldn't resort to the same tactics that have resulted in the road block on any Bush nominee considered too conservative.

Well, let's take a look at them and see the Republican efforts to be bad guys. My bet has been that there is one or two Republicans who were "dealing" with the dems and have become as filthy and corrupt as all the dems are. Let's get all this out on the table and see.

"The bottom line is that there's a much bigger story here," Miranda said. "I think the Democrat memos are going to be reviewed. I think that there will be an outcome in the Senate."

Well I will believe it when I see it. Going to be reviewed by whom? Certainly not Frist & Co.? If this was a case of Republicans attempting to manipulate judicial appointments, the drums would be beating for a major senate investigation. Of course the Democrats demanded that Miranda be fired and the Republicans fell in line and did just that. Disgusting!

Miranda was a hero, but a naive hero. It's the Republican way in congress: Kick your friends and hold out a helping hand to your enemies.

And no matter how many times your hand gets bitten, do it again.

Y'know, if any more scandals are suffixed with "GATE", I am going to vomit unprecedented volumes. Enough already, mister media people. Not everything can be Watergate, no matter how it is packaged.

Going to be reviewed by whom? Certainly not Frist & Co

We can't have this happen in the "Two-Party Cartel". The whinnie faction lowering the boom on the libs. No Way! We might get a so-called veto-proof Congress & then the puppets in Congress would show just how non-conservative they all really are.

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