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Obstruction is payback
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President Bush and Senate Republicans are waxing righteously indignant over Democrats' obstructing the confirmation of Miguel Estrada to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
And yes, it's a terrible thing. Democrats should abandon their procedural antics and let Estrada's nomination go to the Senate floor.
But first let us acknowledge the stench of hypocrisy hanging thick in the Senate chamber. It was just a few years ago that Democrats were screaming bloody murder over Republicans' obstructing many of President Clinton's judicial nominees.
U.S. Sen Jon Kyl's press secretary has tried to convince us that Democrats' tactics this time are somehow different and more heinous because they're threatening a filibuster. Our view is that whether the tool of choice is a crowbar or monkey wrench, the resultant jamming of the procedural gears is essentially the same.
There's nothing new here and, yes, it's quite political. Each side doesn't want the other filling the courts with judges holding views they find offensive. And with a prospective Supreme Court vacancy opening in the near future, Democrats are flexing some muscle.
They fear, probably correctly, that Bush wants to get Estrada — a conservative Hispanic immigrant — on the Appeals Court and thus poised for a possible nomination to the Supreme Court. And from all appearances, Estrada is well qualified in terms of intellect and experience as well as his apparent strict-constructionist approach to the Constitution.
It's a safe bet that Estrada would not be the kind of judge who uses the bench as a quasi-legislative body through creative interpretation of the Constitution.
That drives Democrats nuts, since they view the courts as a kind of fallback when they don't get their way legislatively.
So here we are, locked in stalemate. What to do?
The right thing would be for Democrats to get out of the way and let the full Senate vote on the nomination. Indeed, every president's judicial nominees should be handled so forthrightly.
Of course, this being politics, what is right may very well have to take a back seat. President Bush may be forced to find somebody else. It won't be the first time that's happened.
And, if it comes to that, Bush and his GOP cohorts in the Senate will have no right to point fingers.
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