[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16197-16198]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         VOTE ON WILLIAM MYERS

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I see the minority leader in the Chamber. I 
will make a few brief comments prior to him taking the floor.
  This morning, we will be in morning business, and I want to make a 
couple of comments about my frustration at this moment. William Myers 
is a Ninth Circuit court nominee from the President to fill the Idaho 
position. He is a phenomenal and highly qualified young man who has 
served as Solicitor at the Department of Interior. He was nominated 
well over a year ago and brought before the committee. He handled 
himself extremely well and professionally. He has been a man who has 
had experience in both the public and the private sector. He served on 
the Judiciary Committee under the former Senator from the State of 
Wyoming. He is a top-flight man.
  Yesterday, as we debated the nomination of Bill Myers, no one from 
the other side came. The reason they did not is that we were served 
notice some months ago that Bill Myers would not receive a vote this 
year. We could try to cloture him, but they were going to block a vote 
against him. Was he qualified? Yes. Should he serve? Yes. Is he the 
selection of the President? Yes. Should he have an up-or-down vote? 
Absolutely. But that is not going to happen.
  He is now the eighth judge the other side has just flat told us does 
not serve their political purpose, and therefore they will not allow us 
a vote. That is constitutional obstructionism in the first order of the 
advise and consent of our Constitution.
  So here is a young man who came to Washington out of college to serve 
his U.S. Senator, served with honor with the Judiciary Committee, 
worked for a private organization advising this Senator and the Senator 
from South Dakota, as well as the National Cattlemen's Association, on 
grazing; became a private practice attorney; then went as attorney to 
the Secretary of Interior; has served most honorably and very credibly. 
He will not get a vote this session of the 108th Congress. Why? Because 
the other side has just flat said he serves their environmental agenda 
purposes and therefore we will not be allowed to vote on him.
  That is a phenomenally frustrating reality to me as a Senator who 
believes that we do not have the right to arbitrarily pick and choose, 
we have the right to advise and consent and to vote them up or vote 
down, 51 votes or 50 votes, but not to arbitrarily pick and choose to 
serve the political agenda of a given political party for these 
purposes. There is no other explanation than the one I have just 
offered.
  If one looks at the broad qualifications of the eight judges who have 
now arbitrarily been chosen for their political past involvement and 
therefore the accusation that they might be an activist on the court, 
that is a frustration of the first order.
  So no one came to the floor yesterday to debate him except those of 
us on the Judiciary Committee advocating his nomination. The votes are 
so locked in, so fixed, so regimented, that this just is not going to 
happen. So we will have a 2:15 vote today. It is perfunctory. It is 
just the way it is going to be, unless we break out of this and say 
collectively to the Senate as a whole, no, this procedure of misusing 
the process is wrong. There is a time to debate, a time of reality, a 
time of broad understanding, but most importantly, under our 
Constitution, we have never filibustered nor intentionally blocked by 
demanding a 60-

[[Page 16198]]

vote majority. They have always broken in the past when tried, and 
ultimately up until this Congress, Presidential nominations received 
the opportunity of the advise and consent of the Senate by a vote on 
the Senate floor, not of a cloture but of a majority.
  The reason I highlight that is because that is the vote this 
afternoon. It is a false vote. It is an unnecessary vote for a highly 
qualified young man who would serve the Ninth Circuit well, a Ninth 
Circuit court that is now viewed as the most dysfunctional court in the 
land, where over 90 percent of its decisions are overturned by the 
Supreme Court. Bill Myers brings common sense to the court, not the 
radicalism of San Francisco lawyers but common sense spread across the 
western public land States of our country.
  Is that why he is not getting the vote? Very possibly so. And that is 
a tragedy of the highest order. This is not the kind of day the Senate, 
this great Chamber, ought to have, but we are going to have it today at 
2:15 this afternoon. So it is important that I speak briefly to that.

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