WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Bush lost a showdown in a
sharply divided Senate on Thursday as Democrats blocked his nomination of Miguel
Estrada, a conservative Hispanic attorney, to a federal appeals court judgeship.
Estrada’s Republican backers fell five votes short of the 60 needed in the 100-member
Senate to end a month-long debate and clear the way for a confirmation vote.
They promised to try again, perhaps as early as next week, as they seek to mount
public pressure on Democrats to back Bush’s bid to make Estrada the first Hispanic
on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
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Let me try to understand this. In the presidential election year
all we heard from the Democrats was every vote counts the majority rules. They
even complained about the Constitution provision for electing the President
being based on the Electoral College instead of the popular vote. But now every
vote doesn’t count and the minority can trump the majority. Over and over again
in judicial nominations everything has been done to prevent a straight up or
down vote. Time for a name change for the Undemocratic Party.
