Bush demands vote on appeals court nominee Estrada

CRAWFORD, Texas -- President Bush charged Saturday that Democratic senators are stalling Miguel Estrada's nomination to a federal appeals court. Democrats said Estrada's unwillingness to be more open has made it impossible for them to evaluate him.

Democrats have held up a final vote on Estrada, the president's choice to be the first Hispanic on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which often decides important government cases.

"I call on the Senate Democratic leadership to stop playing politics, and permit a vote on Miguel Estrada's nomination," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "Let each senator vote as he or she thinks best, but give the man a vote."

He said Democrats are delaying the nomination "while they search in vain for a reason to reject him." The delay could "endanger American justice," he contended.

Democrats say Estrada, a Washington lawyer, lacks the judicial experience to serve on that court. They also complain about his refusal to answer questions about specific cases, including abortion rights, during his confirmation hearing.

Democrats have also requested copies of confidential Justice Department memos Estrada wrote while working in the solicitor general's office, which represents the White House before the Supreme Court.

They said those writings would reveal how Estrada would think as a judge.

The Bush administration has refused to release those memos, and seven former solicitors general, both Democratic and Republican, have backed that decision.

Republicans have accused Democrats of treating Estrada unfairly because he is a conservative Hispanic. The GOP has the 51 Senate votes needed to confirm him, but not the 60 needed to stop a filibuster.

Estrada was first nominated in May 2001, but the nomination did not move to the Senate floor until Republicans took control in January.

"That's almost two years, and that's a disgrace," Bush said.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Bush was "asking for something no president of either party should ask for -- he is asking the Senate to vote without having straightforward answers from a nominee for a lifetime judgeship."

"Mr. Estrada will not answer basic questions about his judicial philosophy, yet he is asking the Senate to confirm him to a lifetime job on the second highest court in the land," Leahy said.

Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, No. 2 Democrat on the committee, urged Bush to give senators "the information necessary on which to base a vote."

A Democratic presidential candidate, the Rev. Al Sharpton, said Bush was using Estrada's Hispanic background to try to add a conservative to the federal bench.

"We cannot be tricked with using diversity to cover up reactionary judges," Sharpton said at a meeting of the Democratic National Committee in Washington.

"They say, 'Well, Reverend, we're giving people a chance, minorities. That's what you fought for.' But we've also fought for people that would be right," Sharpton said. "During the abolitionist movement, we didn't fight to have more diversified slave masters. We fought to get free."