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"Estradification": In the spirit of confirmation battles spawning a new lexicon (e.g., "Borking") the Washington Times reports today [http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050721-115711-9900r.htm] on what some Republicans are calling "Estradification"--requiring the Justice Department to turn over internal legal memoranda written by Roberts while he worked in the SG's office. The refusal by the White House to surrender these sorts of documents was the basis for the Estrada filibuster (hence the name) as well as the current Bolton stalemate. Regardless of the merits of the request, it seems highly unlikely that the White House will surrender these documents. The tone of the article suggests that...

The "nuclear" showdown that is expected to begin unfolding in the Senate today has its origins in closed-door discussions more than three years ago between key Senate Democrats and outside interest groups as they huddled to plot strategies for blocking President Bush's judicial nominees. In a Nov. 7, 2001, internal memo to Sen. Richard J. Durbin, who is now the minority whip, an aide described a meeting that the Illinois Democrat had missed between groups opposed to Mr. Bush's nominees and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat and member of the Judiciary Committee. "Based on input from the groups, I...

With Dan Rather's departure from the CBS Evening News last week, there has been a lot of debate about whether or not there is a liberal bias in the mainstream media -- as if that were a debatable point. Some pundits and journalists argue that even if a liberal bias existed in the past, that those days ended with the rise of talk radio, Fox News and the blogs. While I am ready to concede that these new media outlets are helping to bring balance to the presentation of news, I hold that the mainstream media still has an unmistakable...

Manuel Miranda, the Republican Senate Judiciary Committee staffer who was forced to resign last year over spying on Democratic staff members on the committee, said yesterday that Democratic staffers are still hounding him. According to a complaint filed with the U.S. Attorney's Office's Fraud and Public Corruption Section, Mr. Miranda accuses Democratic staffers whose internal memos he purloined from the computer of stalking him in his job hunt and scuttling a recent job offer he got from a major Washington law firm. "It appears that Democrat staff and aides on the Senate Judiciary Committee were not satisfied with my client's...

From article: . " As political scandals go, the case of the U.S. Senate Democrat memos is differcult to assess throughly, for the moment. The evidence is currently under lock and key by the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms. . That evidence consists of some three to four THOUSAND MEMOS from or to DEMOCRAT MEMBERS of the SENATE JUDICIARY Committee, believed to DETAIL COLLUSION between Democrats and LEFTIST GROUPS to BLOCK confirmation of many of President Bush's judicial Nomonees." see in article: @ Miguel Estrada @ Racist remarks in memos concerning Mr. Estrada's " Latino " backround " , made by a "minority...

(CNSNews.com) - A government watchdog group says it knows who wrote an incriminating memo to Sen. Ted Kennedy, recommending that he delay the confirmation of one of President Bush's judicial nominees -- apparently to influence the outcome of an important pending case. According to The Center for Individual Freedom, two of Sen. Kennedy's former aides -- in a memo dated April 17, 2002 -- recommended that he delay the confirmation of Judge Julia Smith Gibbons to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. The reason? To influence the outcome of the University of Michigan affirmative action cases, then...

Hatch and Frist Fire Whistle-blower Posted March 30, 2004 By John M. Powers GOP scapegoat Miranda has become a hero to conservative groups. Republican leaders have broken a promise they made to expose the shocking contents of memos exchanged among Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats, says Manuel Miranda, the former GOP aide who is the whistle-blower at the center of the so-called Memogate scandal. Miranda tells Insight in an exclusive interview that both Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) broke clearly stated promises to expose collusion between top Democrats and special-interest groups seeking...

Khrushchev's children fulfilling his prophesy Posted: March 23, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Liberal elites talk a good game when it comes to racism, inclusion and diversity – as long the minority is pro-abortion, pro-immorality, program dependent and blames white males and the rich for all ills. I do not consider myself a minority. I consider myself an American. There being some 250-plus million Americans – that hardly makes me a minority. Having said that, I am incensed that elite social racist liberals would – with the Machiavellian treachery of their icon Tom Lynch – attempt to destroy the careers and...

<p>As the dust settles in the Judiciary Committee fuss over Republican snooping into Democrats' memos, several legal scholars said yesterday they were shocked by a memo showing staffers in Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's office plotting to manipulate one of the most significant court cases in recent years.</p>

For several months, Senate action on President Bush’s judicial nominees has ground to a halt as the Judiciary Committee and its members have been consumed with what has become popularly known as "Memogate." The term refers to reportedly more than 4,000 memoranda to and from Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that outline troubling collusion between liberal special interest groups and Committee Democrats to obstruct the confirmation of many of the President’s judicial nominees. Investigations have been launched that, thus far, have focused solely on how the memos were obtained by Republican staffers on the Committee and how they...

<p>March 13, 2004 -- The Wall Street Journal last fall reported the details of Democratic strategy memos on how to derail Bush administration judicial nominations. An investigation disclosed that GOP staffers had obtained the documents from computers shared with Democrats on the Judiciary Committee. But a 65-page report released by the Senate's sergeant-at-arms confirmed what the Republicans had said all along: They didn't hack into any computers or steal any documents.</p>

Washington never ceases to amuse. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.), himself no stranger to leaking, is furious that Democrat staff memos on politicizing judicial confirmations were read and disclosed. The fact that Republicans (including myself) read Democrats' documents on an open server to which they had an affirmative grant of access does not stop his histrionics. Just as amusing, the Washington Post ran two recent editorials indignant that Republicans had read and leaked the Democratic memos. But where was the media sanctimony when, during the Clarence Thomas nomination battle, the Post took illegal possession of the Anita Hill documents, or...

<p>Sen. Chuck Schumer has called for a criminal investigation of Republican Senate staffers who obtained incendiary Democrat computer memos from a shared Judiciary Committee file server and leaked them to the media. "A few of us believe that the only way to get to the bottom of this is for a special counsel to be appointed," the New York Democrat said.</p>

<p>This page's scoop last November--revealing Senate Democratic strategy memos on how to defeat President Bush's judicial nominees--created quite a kerfuffle. The excerpts appeared in an editorial on a Friday. On Monday, the Capitol Police swooped down on the offices of the Senate Judiciary Committee in search of evidence of who leaked the documents. Now, nearly four months later, the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms has delivered a report confirming that 4,700 files were downloaded and that security was extremely lax on the Judiciary computers.</p>

A hot topic of recent political news is the so-called "Memogate." If you have followed such things then you know that some memos from the files of Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee made their way into the hands of the media. Thereafter, committee chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) expressed outrage that such a thing would happen on his watch. And somewhat later, Manny Miranda, who worked for Hatch and more recently has handled judicial nominations for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), resigned. But not before he wrote a tough letter to the Senate Ethics Committee suggesting that the...

<p>Manuel Miranda, a central figure in what has come to be known among Capitol Hill insiders as "Memogate" or "Mannygate," is not the sort of guy with whom you want to get into a dispute.</p> <p>One month after being forced to resign over his role in viewing internal Democratic memos written by Senate Judiciary Committee staffers, Mr. Miranda is leading a spirited battle against Democrats he views as duplicitous and Republicans he sees as wimpy and unprincipled.</p>

From the AP: _________________________________________________________ Report on Judiciary memo snooping likely topic of Thursday meeting JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press March 3, 2004 Senate investigators wrapped up their probe Wednesday into how Democratic computer memos on judicial nominees got into GOP hands as senators prepared for a public debate on who's to blame. Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont got a private briefing by Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle and his investigators. The committee is expected to hash out the report at a Thursday hearing. But it was not yet clear when or if the report,...

Republican Senators with "egg on their faces" March 2, 2004 In the middle of the contentious fight over judicial nominations, we accused Republicans of surrendering to Democrats over what has been termed "Memogate" by some journalists. We said it was wrong for GOP senators to fire and scapegoat one of their most effective staffers, Manuel Miranda. It appears we were right. New information has surfaced showing that not only did Republicans act hastily, but the real blame does lie with the Democrats. Click here for Manuel Miranda's full statement, only released a few hours ago.

Judiciary Report Unveiled Today By Paul Kane Roll Call March 1, 2004 As Senate investigators put the final touches on a report on the handling of leaked memos, Judiciary Democrats took their grievances to the White House, demanding to know if Bush administration officials had access to the controversial documents. In a letter to White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales, four senior Democrats on the Judiciary Committee formally asked the White House whether administration officials had any knowledge of or access to the thousands of memos that were taken from Democrats over a roughly 18-month period from 2001 to early 2003....

<p>The Senate sergeant-at-arms is expected to deliver a final report to Senate leaders today on his investigation into how internal Democratic Judiciary Committee memos were seen by Republican staffers and wound up in print in The Washington Times and elsewhere.</p>