Press Conference Re: Judicial Nominations

Federal News Service

HEADLINE: PRESS CONFERENCE RE: JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS
 
PARTICIPANTS: SENATE MAJORITY LEADER BILL FRIST (R-TN); SENATOR RICK SANTORUM (R-PA); SENATOR ORRIN HATCH (R-UT); SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY); SENATOR ARLEN SPECTER (R-PA); SENATOR KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON (R-TX); SENATOR NORM COLEMAN (R-MN); AND SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC)

SEN. L. GRAHAM: Not much to add, other than I just think my first year in the Senate, I've sort of stepped onto the stage when the Senate's in its darkest hour, I think, in terms of the constitutional process of confirming judges. Being on the Judiciary Committee, I constantly ask myself would I volunteer to be a judge in this environment. I think a lot of good men and women are going to say no when asked to serve their country on the bench at a high level, because you go through hell.

And a lot of this gives me a headache about how you break a filibuster. I'm not so sure I quite understand that. But I do understand this: that if this becomes the way we do business, a lot of good men and women are not going to apply for the jobs, are going to say no to requests to serve their country, Republicans will answer in kind, and you'll set the Senate on a course that I think will be very destructive for the law and the country as a whole.

To expect the Republicans not to answer in kind when there's a Democratic president is probably over-optimistic. And what you're going to do is empower special-interest groups to gather up 41 senators. Whether it's in the environment, whether it's guns or abortion, grabbing up 41 is a lot easier to do than you would think. So we can't let 41 people giving in to special-interest groups decide who's going to be the judges of the future, because the Constitution tells us we shouldn't do that.

If we'll follow the Constitution, it will all work out. If you put somebody on the court you think is conservative, a lot of times you're fooled. For 220-something years, this has worked. The model that we're creating today will not work for the future of this country.