[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 19 (Monday, May 13, 2002)]
[Pages 784-786]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following a Meeting With Congressional Leaders and an Exchange 
With Reporters

May 9, 2002

Nominations to the Federal Judiciary

    The President. I want to thank the Senators for being here today; 
we're talking about a--judges. We have a vacancy crisis in America. 
There are too many seats that aren't filled with judges, and therefore, 
America hurts, America is not getting the justice it needs.
    Ours is a system that relies upon an independent court system, and 
when there is vacancies, the American people suffer. And I call upon the 
Senate to approve--at least give hearings to people we've sent up to the 
Senate. There are 30 circuit court vacancies in America, and they've 
approved 7. This is a bad record, and it's a record that's bad for the 
country.
    Over a year ago I submitted the names of 11 qualified, well-
qualified Americans, and the Senate has only dealt on 3 of them. These 
Senators here bring stories about circuit courts in their own States, in 
their own districts, that because of vacancies, good, honest Americans 
aren't getting their hearings. And this isn't right.
    For the good of the country, the Senate needs to act and act 
expeditiously on the nominees I've sent up. It's important that our 
judiciary be full.
    I'll be glad to answer a couple of questions.
    Arshad [Arshad Mohammed, Reuters].
    Q. Mr. President----
    The President. You're second, Sonya [Sonya Ross, Associated Press].
    Q. Mr. President, do you think this is just--do you think this is 
just raw politics on the part of the Democrats?
    The President. Well, you can ask the Senators here. But yes, I do. I 
think it's bad politics. These are well-qualified--you know, they've 
relied upon the American Bar Association in the past. These nominees 
have been given well-qualified or qualified ratings. Yes, I think it's 
raw politics, and I think it's bad for the country.
    Sonya.

Afghan Warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

    Q. Mr. President, the CIA----
    The President. Is this going to have anything to do about judges?
    Q. ----launched a missile attack against an Afghan warlord. Is this 
now U.S. policy----
    The President. What was that, again?
    Q. Near Kabul, an Afghan warlord survived a missile attack, and this 
has been acknowledged today by Government officials. I'm trying to--what 
my question to you is, is whether this is now the policy to pursue with 
missiles anyone that's--I mean, why are we firing at this man? Is he 
suspected to be Taliban or Al Qaida?

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    The President. I can assure you, when we go after individuals in the 
theater of war, it's because they intend to do some harm to America.

Federal Deficit

    Q. Mr. President, last night your budget director said that he had, 
in his words, grave doubt whether the deficit can be erased by 2004, as 
your administration previously said that it would be. Does it give you 
any concern that you might be facing a reelection campaign at a time 
when the budget would still be in red ink?
    The President. Well, first of all, I'm not thinking that far ahead 
about my election. I am thinking about how to win a war, how to get this 
country's economy growing, and how to deal with a national emergency. 
When I ran for office I said the only way we'd have a deficit, as far as 
I was concerned--if any of those three happened. All three happened.
    And I firmly believe that we need to spend what it takes to protect 
our freedoms, and we're going to do that. We need to make sure our 
military has got the best equipment, the best training, the best pay 
possible to win this war. And it's going to take a while to win the war. 
This isn't a war that's going to end tomorrow. It's a war that is going 
to require a steady, patient, united country going after people who 
still want to harm America. It's going to require money to make sure our 
national security, homeland security is intact.
    And in terms of the economy, the economy is beginning to come back 
but certainly not as strong as I would like. And until the economy comes 
back as strong as it can, revenues aren't going to be as good as they 
should be.

Reform of the Palestinian Authority

    Q. Mr. President, Israeli officials told me yesterday that you 
weren't against the idea of moving Yasser Arafat out of a position of 
power in a reformed Palestinian Authority as long as he was neither hurt 
nor exiled. Is that an accurate reflection of your opinion?
    The President. No, it's not. No, it's not an accurate reflection of 
what went on in the Oval Office, as the Secretary of State has made 
clear--who was in the meeting as well.
    What is an accurate reflection of my opinion is that Mr. Arafat has 
let the Palestinian people down. He hasn't led. And as a result, the 
Palestinians suffer, and my heart breaks for the Palestinian moms and 
dads who wonder whether or not their children are going to be able to 
get a good education and whether or not there's going to be a job 
available for their children.
    And one of the things that we did talk about was how to put 
institutions in place so that a potential Palestinian state can be a 
peaceful neighbor with Israel--reforms such as making sure there is a 
single command security force that can be held accountable for arresting 
terrorists; reforms such as having a kind of economic system that would 
help promote rule of law and defeat corruption; reform so that if there 
is ever a rebuilding campaign--which we've expressed an interest in 
doing and the Europeans have--that the money is actually spent on the 
projects that we intend them to be spent on. And that's what we did 
discuss.

Palestinian Authority Arrest of Hamas Terrorists

    Q. Do you have any confidence that the Hamas members arrested today, 
sir, will stay in jail?
    The President. We'll have to see. But what I said was--I said I was 
pleased that Chairman Arafat spoke in Arabic against terrorism. That's 
good. That's a positive development. Now it's up to Chairman Arafat to 
perform, to keep them in jail--arrest them, and keep them in jail. In 
order for there to be peace, there must be--we must rout out terror. And 
the answer to your question, time will tell.

Note: The President spoke at 1:25 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House. In his remarks, he referred to Chairman Yasser Arafat of 
the Palestinian Authority. A tape was not available for verification of 
the content of these remarks.

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