"We Don't Need No Stinkin Judges"

ARRA News Service - Tony Perkins, FRC Washington Update: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) had the nerve to stand on the Senate floor and declare that no one cares about judicial confirmations. "I'm telling you, Madam President, I can't ever remember going home and somebody saying, 'Could you guys [confirm] some more judges? ...Frankly, judge[s] [aren't] a big issue."

This runs counter to what Senator Reid said after the Supreme Court upheld the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. The majority leader was quick to comment, "I would only say that this isn't the only decision that a lot of us wish that Alito weren't there and O'Connor were there." His counterpart on the House side, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), had an even higher opinion of judges in 2005 after the Supreme Court Kelo ruling on land rights. Her reply to the controversial decision was that when judges handed down a ruling it "was almost as if God has spoken." Of any issue we face today, judges are the ones who are literally making policy-often by overruling a complacent legislature. If Senator Reid doesn't think judges matter, then perhaps he can explain why he's been so insistent on holding so many of President Bush's nominees hostage. Last week marked the one-year anniversary of Robert Conrad's nomination. Meanwhile, Mr. Peter Keisler has been waiting for more than 750 days to be treated fairly by the Democrats in Congress. A president's lasting legacy is marked by the judicial nominations he makes, and Senator Reid is making his own legacy one of obstruction.