Senator: Graham
SPECTER: Senator Graham?
GRAHAM: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I guess there's 18 ways of saying the same thing...
(LAUGHTER)
... broken into two different categories.
Number one, what did you expect President Bush to do when he won?
GRAHAM: I am very pleased with Roberts and Alito. There's some people I wouldn't have pleased with that were on the list. And I think he's made an outstanding choice with Judge Alito, an outstanding choice with Judge Roberts.
And to long for the good ol' days of the united nation under President Clinton is, sort of, rewriting history. I don't remember it being that united. I remember it being pretty contentious, but we made it through.
I also remember President Clinton getting two picks. And Justice Ginsburg -- everything you'll have said about Judge Alito we could say in spades about Justice Ginsburg if we wanted to look at the causes she represented and look at some of her political philosophy or statements she's made. But that was not chosen.
People say it's different because Senator Hatch suggested Ginsburg to President Clinton. Well, I want to compliment you for looking at her qualifications and her being a decent person, and ignoring the huge differences you have with her on the law and life in general.
What's changed? It's not the quality of the nominees, it's the quality of the process.
To my friend, Senator Feinstein, from a pro-life point of view, Justice Ginsburg replaced a vote on Roe v. Wade. Justice Byron White voted against Roe v. Wade. We knew that would be a change, I guess, from the pro-life side and decided not to make our vote dependent upon Roe v. Wade.
Every Democratic nominee that I can remember has openly campaigned on the idea that, "If I get to make a Supreme Court choice, I will make sure it will be a judge who will honor Roe v. Wade." There is no hiding that; that's said at the convention.
But Breyer and Ginsburg got 96 votes and got 89 votes.
I really do worry that we're going to take the Supreme Court nominating process and boil it down to abortion. And that won't be good for the country, but that's definitely the direction we're headed.
And let me tell you another thing that's not good for the country. With little chance of stopping Judge Alito confirmation to the Supreme Court, Senate Democratic leaders urged their members Tuesday to vote against him in an effort to lay the groundwork for making a campaign issue of the decisions on the court.
I'll just tell you right now we welcome that debate on our side. We'll clean your clock.
I mean, Judge Alito is closer to the mainstream of America than Citizens for American Way. We'll win that debate, but the judiciary will lose if we continue to do this.
I'm not afraid of the politics of judging. I've engaged in some politics of judging, looking back, that I probably shouldn't have done. I do worry about the independence of the judiciary being eroded.
As to who he is and whether or not he's too deferential to the government, after listening to Senator Feingold, it's amazing he would even be considered for nomination.
GRAHAM: He should be under house arrest.
(LAUGHTER)
Why did seven judges who served on the 3rd Circuit come to his aid? How do you ignore that? How could someone who is that hard- hearted, that bent on ignoring the law and following a narrow agenda, get a well-qualified rating after thousands of cases have been analyzed by the American Bar Association?
Why would these judges come up and embrace such a character, if all that were really true?
I would suggest to you that he has not been treated fairly. I would suggest to you he's been treated poorly. And this is a sign of things to come.
Vanguard, if it bothers you, it really is more about you than the facts. What would he gain by intentionally not recusing himself? Nothing. It was a mistake and he said it was a mistake.
The bottom line, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to have a party-line vote in this committee.
Judge Roberts received 50 percent of the Democratic caucus vote and he's one of the most stellar nominees in the history of the country. Judge Alito is one of the most well-qualified people to be nominated in 70 years and he'll be lucky to get a handful of Democratic senators.
I look forward to working with my colleagues on the other side and my chairman and ranking member to find a way to collaborate with the White House on the NSA issue. I am sympathetic to your concerns. I am very concerned that the war resolution is being interpreted overly broad. I think that is a legitimate concern for the Congress to have and I look forward to working with you.
What's going on in the Judge Alito nomination, I think, is not advising and consenting. It's more about politics.
Professor Michael Gerhardt, who's an adviser to our Democratic friends about the confirmation process, wrote, "The Constitution establishes a presumption of confirmation that works to the advantage of the president and his nominee. Furthermore, once a nomination is made, it is likely, by virtue of having been formally made by the president of the United States, to be clothed with an aura of respectability, credibility and presumptive merit unless a critical mass of senators can show otherwise.
GRAHAM: A majority of the American people see the same qualities in Judge Alito that his colleagues who have served with him on the bench see; all those who have worked for him and against see.
What we have is a record replete with a decent man with a strict constructionist judicial philosophy consistent with what the president said he would nominate if chosen to be president: a legitimate legal philosophy to have, just as Justice Ginsburg has a legitimate legal philosophy.
We're no longer advising and consenting. We're jockeying for the next election. And over time we'll erode the quality of the judiciary.
I welcome the debate in the years to come about what kind of judges Roberts and Alito will be. I think it will be in the mainstream of the law, but more importantly in the mainstream of where the American people are regarding the law.
I look forward to supporting this nomination on the floor.
SPECTER: Thank you, Senator Graham.
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