G.O.P. Loses Filibuster Vote on Judicial Nominee

New York Times ^ | Friday, March 7, 2003 | By NEIL A. LEWIS

[JohnHuang2]

March 7, 2003

G.O.P. Loses Filibuster Vote on Judicial Nominee

By NEIL A. LEWIS

ASHINGTON, March 6 — Senate Republicans lost a crucial test vote today over President Bush's nomination of Miguel Estrada to the federal appeals court in Washington, gaining 55 votes, 5 short of the 60 needed to cut off debate.

Today's vote left only increased confusion over how the issue, with its complex brew of ethnic and judicial politics, will play out. Each side seemed increasingly obstinate, declaring that the other was trampling on the Constitution.

The Republicans hold a 51-49 majority in the Senate, enough to confirm Mr. Estrada. But the Democrats have been able to prevent a vote by or going into prolonged debate when the Republicans have sought to bring up his nomination.

The only way to break a filibuster is a parliamentary procedure requiring at least 60 votes, meaning the Republicans would need to persuade nine Democrats to join them.

Today, only four Democrats voted to end the filibuster, leaving the Republicans five votes short.

President Bush called the Democrats' action today a disgrace and said, "I will stand by Miguel Estrada's side until he is sworn in as a judge."

Just how long that will take was unclear. Republican leaders promised an unending string of efforts to break the filibuster, and Democrats said they would continue to block such efforts.

The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee, said that today's defeat was only the beginning of his party's efforts to see Mr. Estrada become the first Hispanic judge on the the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, widely regarded as second in importance only to the United States Supreme Court.

Usually, the failure of a motion to invoke cloture — breaking the filibuster with 60 votes — means the underlying issue or nomination is dead. But Dr. Frist and his fellow Republicans had expected to lose today, and they said they would continue to seek cloture votes.

"As long as it takes," Dr. Frist said.

This who-will-blink-first partisan showdown has come in the first few months of Dr. Frist's tenure as Republican leader. "I've tried to be reasonable and patient," he said, adding that "if we need to, we will have a cloture vote again and again."

His Democratic counterpart, Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, told reporters he was confident that no matter how many times the Republicans sought to break the filibuster, the Democrats' support would not erode further. The four Democrats — Senators John B. Breaux of Louisiana, Zell Miller of Georgia, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Bill Nelson of Florida — who voted today with the Republicans had already announced their intentions to let a vote proceed.

Mr. Estrada, 42, a Washington lawyer, has extensive experience in arguing cases before the Supreme Court but has done little that would disclose his philosophical leanings.

But in the small world of elite Washington lawyers, Mr. Estrada is seen as a staunch conservative, and Democrats have asserted that he was chosen as part of what they say is President Bush's plan to pack the courts with conservatives.

The Estrada battle is part of a war between the White House and Democrats in the Senate over the authority for choosing federal judges.

When the Democrats controlled the Senate, in Mr. Bush's first two years in office, they moved slowly on approving his nominees in an effort to persuade him to choose fewer stalwart conservatives. But since the Republicans regained control of the Senate in January, they have tried to push through Mr. Bush's choices.

In a session of the Judiciary Committee today, for example, the Republicans used their majority to approve the nomination of Timothy M. Tymkovich to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, based in Denver.

Mr. Tymkovich has been aggressively opposed by liberal advocacy groups, notably the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights organization that said he had opposed laws that outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Most nominees deflect questions about their views when they are questioned by the Judiciary Committee, but Mr. Estrada may have been even more reticent and cautious. Democrats have asked the Bush administration to provide legal memorandums he wrote while a Justice Department official.

Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House counsel, said in a letter this week to Senator Daschle that he was disappointed the Democrats had not responded to his offer to have Mr. Estrada visit any senator who wanted to ask further questions. Senator Daschle today said the Democrats would settle for nothing less than Mr. Estrada's legal memorandums.

[VRWC_minion]

We are not going to turn it around without public pressure and that pressure isn't going to happen unless there is coverage.

[VRWC_minion]

Call me naieve, but I do not remember electing the "media" or ever having the opportunity to vote for or against them, barring my one time Nielson stint.

Okkie dokie, your naieve. Look, unless we get public pressure to bear on the rats nothing is going to chaneg. Going by the constitution we have lost. Its over as it stands right now. The issue is how do we change that dynamic.