Posted on 07/24/2005 12:44:55 PM PDT by RWR8189
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration does not intend to release all memos and others documents written by Supreme Court nominee John Roberts during his tenure with two Republican administrations, a White House representative said Sunday.
Fred D. Thompson, the former Tennessee senator who is guiding Roberts through the nomination process on behalf of the White House, said material that would come under attorney-client privilege would be withheld.
He said previous administrations, both Republican and Democrat, have followed that principle.
A leading Senate Democrat disputed the assertion that privacy was at stake and called such a position a "red herring."
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said requests for documents would be considered on a case-by-case basis from the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will consider the nomination.
"There is often an accommodation that is reached with respect to requests for information, and I suspect that's going to happen in this case," Gonzales said on "Fox News Sunday."
The committee has yet to make a request. But some Democrats, including Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, have urged the White House to release such documents "in their entirety."
Roberts worked in the Reagan White House counsel's office from 1982-1986. Roberts also was principal deputy solicitor general in the administration of the first President Bush.
"We hope we don't get into a situation where documents are asked for that folks know will not be forthcoming and we get all hung up on that," Thompson told NBC's "Meet the Press."
Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt., said other nominees, including Chief Justice William Rehnquist, have provided material they wrote in confidence while working in the Justice Department.
"There's so much precedence for that," said Leahy, the senior Democrat on the committee.
"It's a total red herring to say, 'Oh, we can't show this.' And of course there is no lawyer-client privilege. Those working in the solicitor general's office are not working for the president. They're working for you and me and all the American people," he told ABC's "This Week."
Mr. 'no SF-180' Kerry said that?????
Wonder if the Dems would think it OK for a Clinton lawyer to turn over all his memos and communications with Bill and Hillary???
And no doubt, the members of the Judiciary committee will then shrilly DEMAND to have the documents in question, even when there is clear reason not to let their contents be known. And lacking access to these documents, Schumer, Biden, Kennedy and Leahy shall "regretfully" be unable allow a committee vote for his acceptability for confirmation.
Don't these people listen to their OWN focus groups?
Its a total "red herring" to ask for it in the first place you stupid Dem Sons of beaches, You know it and WE know it.
Look at whi is lining up to start this crap." Leaky Leahy",
"JFK F-180 Kerry", " Teddy the Swimmer". Trash.
Wonder if the Dems would think it OK for a Clinton lawyer to turn over all his memos and communications with Bill and Hillary???
He's dead, Jim!
Why they are releasing ANY memos should be the question.
Any more, I think they stack their own focus groups with like-minded partisans instead of a broader cross-section of the country.
Either that, or they're just so clueless that they don't care how they play to the majority.
Great point! Thanks.
They can't anyway (and the dims know it) "seperation of powers" forbids is, along with attorney/client privlege.
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