CBS: Senators Want Roberts To Reply Now

[deminks]

(AP) Two Democratic senators said Wednesday that they want Supreme Court nominee John Roberts to explain before his confirmation hearings why he continued to judge a lawsuit against the Bush administration while being interviewed to be a justice.

White House spokesman Steve Schmidt said in response that "the opponents of Judge Roberts are increasingly grasping at straws trying to find a rationale for opposing him."

That month, Roberts sat on a three-judge panel that refused to block military tribunals for terror suspects. A lawsuit against the administration was brought by Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who once was al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's driver.

He recently recused himself from a case involving the American Bar Association, Feingold and Schumer said, presumably because the ABA was preparing its rating of him for his Supreme Court nomination.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/25/politics/main795134.shtml


(emphasis mine - I had not seen the ABA story before)

I am glad CBS is keeping this story alive - this question needs to be answered. I suspect that Bushco was quite desperate to keep those tribunals.

[Skidmore]

1. I'm really torn about giving these Senators a pat on the back

for anything of this nature since for all the bellowing that they engage in periodically doesn't stop them from rubberstamping a fair amount of really terrible and hurtful legislation.