Nominee’s Chances Look Slim

Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott conceded Friday that President Bush’s judicial nomination of Miguel Estrada, a Latino attorney seen by critics as too conservative, appears virtually dead.

Bush nominated him to be the first Latino on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia 17 months ago. If confirmed, Estrada would be positioned as a potential Bush nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Senior Democratic aides agreed that the nomination would not progress, saying Congress seemed certain to adjourn for the year without the Democratic-led Judiciary Committee even voting whether to send Estrada to the full chamber for confirmation.

“I don’t think they are going to bring him up. There has been no movement at all,” said Lott (R-Miss.) in a brief interview on Capitol Hill.

“They are not going to vote on him because he is a highly intelligent conservative,” Lott said. “That’s it. Pure and simple.”

Lott said that if Republicans regain control of the Senate in the Nov. 5 election, they would move swiftly in the new year to confirm Estrada and other conservative judicial nominees blocked by Democrats over the last two years.

A number of Senate Democrats and liberal interest groups see Estrada as another attempt by Bush to line the federal courts with right-wing ideologues.

Bush and fellow Republicans in Congress argue that Estrada should be confirmed, noting that the American Bar Assn. gave him its highest rating.

Estrada, a private attorney in Washington, D.C., earlier served as an assistant U.S. solicitor general.

Thus far, just two of Bush’s judicial nominees have been formally rejected by the Judiciary Committee: Charles Pickering of Mississippi and Priscilla Owen of Texas. But many others have not received a hearing or a vote.

If this Senate adjourns without taking action on them, the nominations would be returned to Bush, who could renew them next year when a new Senate is sworn in.

Lott said that if Republicans do take control of the Senate, “We would probably, within a month or two, confirm 40 to 50 judges who have been abused unmercifully” by Democrats. Overall, the Judiciary Committee has approved 81 of Bush’s judicial nominees and plans to hold hearings next week on seven district court nominees.