There are 80 million Catholics in this country, and a lot of them will respond to a charge that Democrats won't vote for a Catholic Judge.
Pryor Nomination Survives on 10-9 Vote
By Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 24, 2003; Page A04
A bitterly divided Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines yesterday to approve the appellate court nomination of Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor Jr. and send it to the Senate, where a Democratic filibuster appears increasingly likely.
The 10 to 9 vote for Pryor's nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, followed an acrimonious debate that included a blistering exchange over a conservative group's charge that Democrats opposed Pryor because of views arising out of his Catholic faith.
Democrats described the ads as "contemptible" and "diabolical" and called on GOP senators to disavow them, while Republicans said Democrats were applying litmus tests on abortion and other issues that would disqualify people such as Pryor who strictly adhere to Catholic doctrine.
The debate became so heated that FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, who had been scheduled to testify after the Pryor vote, had to wait more than 90 minutes.
Because of their opposition to some judicial nominees, Democrats have been accused of being anti-Baptist, anti-woman, anti-Hispanic and now anti-Catholic, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. "This is crazy, absolutely crazy," he said.
The vote for Pryor followed an identical 10 to 9 roll call on a move by Democrats to delay a vote until they could complete an investigation into Pryor's fundraising for the Republican Attorneys General Association and whether he misled the committee.
Democrats contended Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) violated committee rules in forcing the vote, but Hatch overruled them, disputing their interpretation. Democrats then cast their votes on the nomination under "protest" that the process was out of order.
"We have had a shabby injection of unseemly ads relative to religion, we have an unfinished investigation raising serious ethical questions, and, as icing on the cake, we're going to strong-arm a vote out of this committee," Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) complained.
Republicans countered that Democrats opposed the conservative Pryor on ideological grounds and defended the nominee as committed to upholding the law even when it conflicted with his strongly held views on abortion and other issues. "Yes, he has political views but his commitment to the law is extraordinary," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said.
Democrats have criticized Pryor's positions on civil rights, women's issues and environmental protection and questioned whether he could separate his personal views from his actions as a judge. Hatch accused Democrats of a "far-flung fishing expedition that has succeeded only in undeservedly trashing a good man's reputation."
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said he was voting to send the nomination to the floor but would reserve judgment on whether Pryor should be confirmed until the Senate considers it. Without Specter's vote, the nomination could have died in committee.
Democrats have not said whether they will try to block a Senate vote with a filibuster, as they have done with two other nominees, Miguel A. Estrada and Priscilla R. Owen, and could do with two more, Carolyn Kuhl and Charles W. Pickering Sr.
But several have dropped strong hints that a filibuster is likely, especially since Republicans refused to delay the committee vote. GOP defections could scuttle the nomination without a Democratic filibuster. The GOP majority has 51 votes, nine short of the 60 needed to break a filibuster. So far it has been unable to pick up enough Democratic support to prevail.
Despite the ferocity of the debate, there were some efforts at comity.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), followed by other Democrats, criticized a call Tuesday from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) to recuse himself from voting because questions had been raised about his fundraising as Texas's attorney general. Hatch rejected a proposal by several Republicans for an investigation into possible Democratic staff involvement in the fundraising dispute. And Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) criticized the injection of religion into the debate.
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