Posted on 03/13/2003 12:30:53 PM PST by MeekOneGOP
Owen returns to Senate Judiciary Committee
03/13/2003
By JESSE J. HOLLAND / The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Texas Supreme Court Judge Priscilla Owen is returning to the Senate Judiciary Committee in hopes that its new GOP majority finally can move her appellate nomination to the full Senate.
Democrats blocked President Bush's home-state candidate from a seat on the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans last year, but Republicans said Owen's willingness to face more questions Thursday from Democrats shows she's ready to move up to the federal bench.
"She can handle it," said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. "Let's have a hearing so that there's no excuse and bring her forward for a vote."
The Senate's GOP majority will also try Thursday to get another U.S. Appeals Court nominee, Hispanic lawyer Miguel Estrada, past a Democratic filibuster.
Owen also will likely face resistance from Democrats when Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, brings her revived nomination up for a vote.
Democrats voted her nomination down last year on a 10-9 party line vote in the Judiciary committee, saying she has been an anti-abortion and pro-business judicial activist whose opinions and rulings are overly influenced by her personal beliefs.
One of Owen's defenders Thursday will be a former colleague from the Texas Supreme Court, John Cornyn of Texas, who served with Owen on the court for three years. Cornyn is now the junior senator from Texas, and will vote on Owen's nomination as one of the newest members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Republicans now control the committee with a 10-9 majority.
They hope their new Senate majority will nudge Estrada's nomination past its second encounter Thursday with the Democratic filibuster.
"It is my hope that the other side of the aisle will decide it's time to conclude the debate," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said.
Republicans couldn't muster the 60 votes they needed a week ago to get past the filibuster, despite pressure from the White House, GOP lawmakers and conservative Hispanics and activists.
Democrats say they still have enough votes to keep Estrada's nomination for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia from moving forward until he answers more of their questions and turns over his working papers from his time at the Justice Department.
The GOP has offered to just let Estrada answer more questions, but "both parts have to be complied with," Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said.
Estrada would be the first Hispanic on the D.C. circuit if confirmed by the Senate. That court is considered the second most important in the nation because it decides cases that determine how federal agencies regulate topics like gas prices, clean air and water, labor practices and campaign finance reform.
The court currently has four vacancies and eight active judges: four Republicans and four Democrats.
(ap.state.online.tx 0265 03/13/2003 03:47:25 )
Just something about these conservative women.
Which will magically be transformed from the 10-9 party line RAT vote to a 10-9 lockstep Republican vote. Lockstep. Goosestep. Just rolls off the tongue. Forked tongue, that is.
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