Posted on 09/01/2005 11:43:29 AM PDT by wagglebee
Supreme Court nominee John Roberts should not avoid senators' tough questions at his confirmation hearing next week, Sen. Charles Schumer said Thursday as he argued against using Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as Roberts' role model for avoiding key issues.
Republicans say Ginsburg declined to answer senators questions 55 times at her Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, while Justice Stephen Breyer declined to answer questions 18 times. Conservative group Progress for America is running a television advertisement saying "As with Ginsburg, Judge Roberts should not answer questions that force him to prejudge cases."
But Schumer, a New Yorker and member of the Judiciary Committee, argued in a speech Thursday that Ginsburg had a clearer paper trail given her 13 years as a federal appeals judge, and that she was a consensus candidate since President Clinton consulted with Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah before naming her to the court. Roberts became a federal judge in 2003.
"If Judge Roberts repeatedly resorts to the so-called 'Ginsburg Precedent,' it will sound less like a principled refusal to answer and more like a variation on the Fifth Amendment: 'I refuse to answer that question on the ground that it may incriminate me. Answering may reveal my actual views about constitutional law and cause me to lose votes,"' said Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
When asked if an evasive Roberts would cause Democrats to stage a filibuster, Schumer said the hearings will determine the answer.
"You have to be at the hearing and see what happens. Now, if he is a Miguel Estrada, and just refuses abjectly to answer everything, it would make a filibuster more likely," Schumer said. "You can't rule it out right now, but I wouldn't say we would definitely do it under this, this or this circumstance. You have to wait and see how Judge Roberts answers questions."
Democrats demanded that former U.S. Appeals Court nominee Estrada publicly answer more of their questions or the White House release Estrada's working papers from his time at the Justice Department solicitor general's office.
The White House refused, and Democrats were able to sustain a filibuster on Estrada.
Then Chuckie you better ask intelligent questions not do political posturing; otherwise he just might eat your lunch on camera for all the nation to see.
UpChuck...Bite me.
What are you going to do Chuckie, filibuster? Go right ahead. America is waiting Chuckie. LOL.
Dear Senator Schumer,
You've fought hard to make sure that women can enter abortion clinics.
Will you fight hard to make sure that women can become full-fledged members of you Masonic Lodge?
Or are you the worst kind of a male-chavinist pig?
....I despise this jerk....he's such a sanctimonious A-Hole.
Yo Chuckie! Go take a flying freak at a rolling donut! A$$hole...
Somebody please toss this jackass off the planet!!!
Senator Schumer - what a putz!
Constitutional Option.
No, Schumer only asks dumbass questions.
Schumer is talking about this crap when the country is being torn apart? He is a POS.
If Teddy, Durbin, Chuckie push it too far then invoke the Constitutional option. Then for the next opening, Re nominate Bork.
Wouldn't it be fun to address congress and give these idiots a peice of your mind someday? I'd pay good money to do that.
Shumer and his ilk are losing the fight and they are so desperate to win they will do or say anything-even if it makes them all look stupid. So far, Chuckie-wuckie still looks mighty damned stupid to me, and I think about two hundred million more folks in the U.S.A. Keep it up Chuckie, 'cause every time your open your poisoned mouth, it makes more folks throwup when they think of you and fat Teddy!
So, has he, or has he not stopped beating his wife?
"HOW COULD YOU ALLOW THIS COUNTRY TO ABORT AWAY AN ENTIRE GENERATION OF SCIENTISTS, MUSICIANS, DOCTORS, BUILDERS, TEACHERS, CLERGY, ETC?"
Somebody please toss this jackass off the planet!!!""
Send him down to drive a rescue boat that is being shot at by the products of his Liberal attitudes. Seems a fitting place for him right now, IMO. Sort of "Up close and personal".
I wish Roberts would make a statement about how incredibly tasteless it is for Schumer to be even dwelling on this when what is probably the deadliest single event in American history is still ongoing.
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