Sen. Salazar: Bush Should Withdraw All Judges

Sen. Salazar: Bush Should Withdraw All Judges

NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, March 2, 2005

WASHINGTON -- A freshman Senate Democrat urged President Bush on Tuesday to withdraw all of his renominated judicial candidates, a blow to Republicans who had hoped to get the lawmaker's support to break possible filibusters.

Colorado Democrat Ken Salazar, who some Republicans had suggested might be willing to vote with them for certain nominees, wrote Bush asking him to withdraw all of the candidates Democrats blocked in the Senate during the president's first term.

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"The decision to renominate these individuals will undoubtedly create the animosity and divisiveness ... that is not helpful to our nation and will sidetrack our collective efforts to work on other crucial matters," Salazar wrote.

The development coincided with the Senate Judiciary Committee's first hearing for one of those blocked nominees, William Myers, once the top lawyer at the Interior Department.

The committee chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter, put Myers first because the Pennsylvania Republican hoped that Salazar and some Democrats would support his nomination.

The Senate has 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats and one Democratic-leaning senator. Specter needs 60 votes to ensure Democrats cannot block Myers. "I count 58 votes," Specter said Tuesday before Salazar's announcement.

But Myers' nomination is one that Salazar is asking the president to abandon. A spokesman for Salazar said the senator had not decided how he will vote on Myers or any other nominee.

But withdrawing Myers and the other blocked nominees "would be a recognition that the Congress and the president must work on those matters where we can find common purpose," said Salazar.

At the hearing, Myers tried to convince Democrats that he would be a fair and impartial judge if confirmed for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees cases from nine states in the West.

Liberal and environmental groups complain about what they say is his advocacy for mining and cattle interests.

"As a lawyer, I was an advocate of my clients," Myers said. "If I was to be confirmed, I would be an advocate for the law."

Few Democrats seemed convinced.

"I believe Mr. Myers to be the most anti-environment nominee sent to the Senate in my time here," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Added Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.: "Your record screams 'passionate activist.' It doesn't so much as whisper 'impartial judge."'

But Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, spoke of Myers' time in the government and called him "one of the better people who has worked here, one of the most knowledgeable people."

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