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Bush urges Senate to approve Estrada nominationSenate Democrats vow fight
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush accused Senate Democrats on Tuesday of playing "shameful politics" after they announced they had the votes to block an immediate confirmation vote on his nomination of Miguel Estrada to the federal appeals bench. After threatening a filibuster for weeks, Democrats emerged from their weekly policy luncheon Tuesday with enough support within their ranks to take on the White House and the Republican Senate majority in an increasingly contentious battle over Estrada's nomination. Bush, meeting with members of the House from both parties on pending welfare reform legislation, said "I expect him to get fairer treatment than he's getting" and urged a vote by the full Senate. "Miguel Estrada is highly qualified, extremely intelligent," Bush said. "He has the votes necessary to be confirmed. Yet a handful of Democrats in the Senate are playing politics with his nomination, and it's shameful politics." Senate Republicans, meanwhile, threatened to force the Democrats to stay in session until a final vote was taken. "If they want to stay through the weekend, we'll stay through the weekend," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tennesse While Republicans have the 51 votes to confirm Estrada as the first Hispanic judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, 60 votes are needed to cut off Senate debate on a Democratic filibuster. Democrats need 41 votes to sustain a filibuster. Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, who has 48 Democrats in his caucus, said Democrats will not allow Republicans to vote on the nomination until the White House makes Estrada answer more of their questions. Democrats have complained repeatedly that Estrada did not fully answer questions from Senate Judiciary Democrats last year during his confirmation hearings and evaded questions about his legal opinion on Supreme Court decisions. Daschle and top Judiciary Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont also want Estrada to turn over memos he wrote while working for the Solicitor General's office at the Justice Department, saying those documents will reveal how Estrada thinks. The Justice Department previously had refused to release the memos. "Until that information is provided, we will not be in the position to allow this vote to come to the floor," Daschle said. The Democrats' defiance came as Bush appealed to the Senate to act on the nomination. "Fairness demands that he receive an up or down vote on the Senate floor," Bush said in a statement released by the White House Tuesday. "I urge the Senate to act quickly and allow for an up or down vote on this worthy candidate." Estrada, a Washington lawyer Bush nominated for the high-profile judgeship in May 2001, is a member of the law firm that represented Bush in his successful Supreme Court fight for the presidency. He came to the United States from Honduras as a teenager and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1986. He has practiced constitutional law and argued 15 cases before the Supreme Court. Republicans have continually asked Democrats to set a time for a final vote, but Senate Democrats have refused. Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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