Senator: Coburn
SPECTER: Senator Coburn?
COBURN: Mr. Chairman, thank you for your leadership.
There's a lot of learned lawyers on this committee. And you can learn a lot by the words that they use.
And I've been struck both in the hearings and today, the use of the word "integrity," and the challenge of that word.
COBURN: And I'm reminded that we can only challenge someone's integrity to the extent of our own.
And the points that have been made about the conduct of the hearings and the future course of judicial nominations in this country should not go unheeded. We will not have people come forward to serve this nation if we continue the process that was held this time.
The other thing that I've learned is tremendous amount of prophets on the Senate Judiciary Committee about what he will or won't do. And I'm, kind of, reminded, as we've looked back at the last 30 years, we're all surprised at what some have and haven't done, and we're surprised every time.
The third thing is this new constitutional mandate that you have to replace somebody with the same ideology that was on there, which I've, kind of, looked through my little paperback copy of the Constitution, I can't find it. I can't find it anywhere in the Constitution that we're mandated to keep the court ideologically balanced in terms of what somebody's perception might be.
Then the other thing that I've heard so many times in this committee is liberty. My understanding of liberty is my liberty's only good if it doesn't impinge on somebody else's.
But we've had the little guy mentioned time and time again, and I think about the most vulnerable little guy in this world, which is the unborn child, which we attain no liberty for in this country any longer. And how can we claim to be for the little guy and ignore that little guy?
And then I guess the final thing is, what is mainstream? There certainly would be a debate between a constituent from Oklahoma and New York or California on what mainstream is.
I appreciate Senator Feinstein being dead honest about her problems with this nominee, the worry that he may reverse something. But the fact is is that doesn't disqualify him from being a great justice. If anything, the fact that he won't say where he is is one of the qualifications that we ought to like about him.
So it really boils down is, it's like I said in the hearing: We can find all the reasons in the world to reject him, but the real reason he'll be rejected is because he might -- might -- vote to give liberty to the weakest of all in this country.
COBURN: And that's the very reason why I would support him. And I do support him.
Thank you.
SPECTER: Thank you, Senator Coburn.
Without objection, we will include in the record the Philadelphia Inquirer editorial, The Washington Post editorial, the Chicago Tribune editorial, the Dallas Morning News editorial, the Rocky Mountain News editorial, the Orlando Sentinel editorial.
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