Dianne Feinstein, February 10, 2003:
Miguel Estrada has never been a judge. So we have no record of judicial decision-making to examine. This is not dispositive in itself, but it is the first area where we find no record to help us in our decision.
Mr. Estrada is not a prolific writer. So we have no real record of writing to examine. Again, this alone would not be dispositive, but it is strike 2 in terms of where we can get information about this nominee.
We have not been granted access to the memos he wrote at the Department of Justice. So we can only take the word of the man who supervised him that those memos were ideologically driven and that he could not be trusted.
Elena Kagan has never been a judge. She is not a prolific writer. We have not seen her internal memoranda and correspondence from when she was Solicitor General.
And so we see in the L.A. Times yesterday:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called Kagan’s lack of judicial experience “refreshing,” . . .
It’s just too easy. And I’m sure you could find examples of hypocrisy running the other way, too.
It’s the kind of thing that makes you long to watch actual kabuki theater.
And all that Kabuki theater helps to further explain, to paraphrase Victor Davis Hanson, why angry public is so angry.
Related: Michelle Malkin on Pete Stark, another San Francisco Democrat: “This is what the bloated arrogance of entitled incumbency looks like.”
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