[chs68]

"Last week Schumer wrote a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft, suggesting that the department’s decision not to release the documents had “thwarted” the Senate’s consent power, leaving senators with “distressingly little to go on in evaluating whether or not [Estrada] has extreme views that may make him an unacceptable choice.”"

Now, correct me if I am wrong here, but didn't the ABA give Estrada its highest possible rating?

And weren't the Democrats whining not so long ago about the decision by the Bush Administration to take away the power of the ABA to trump any judicial nominee

? And wasn't pasrt of the Democrats' argument then that the ABA sets the highest possible standard for judicial nominees?

How in the world then can Sen. Schumer say that he and other senators had distressingly little to go on in evaluating whether or not .....?

It would seem to me that he and other Dems have had all the information they need -- the highest possible rating on Estrada from the ABA.

[ez]

I thought the Senate was supposed to consider their qualifications...not their ideology.