Excerpt:
In a blistering rebuke, President Bush on Thursday said the Senate's confirmation review of his judicial nominees has too often become a "search and destroy" mission that ruins a person's reputation.
"Senate confirmation is part of the Constitution's system of checks and balances. But it was never intended to be a license to ruin the good name that a nominee has worked a lifetime to build," Bush said in excerpts of a speech he was to deliver Thursday night to The Federalist Society, a conservative group that emphasizes legal matters.
"Today, good men and women nominated to the federal bench are finding that inside the Beltway, too many interpret `advise and consent' to mean `search and destroy,' " Bush said.
Bush said the confirmation process does more than unfairly tarnish good people; it also dissuades qualified nominees from even being considered.
"Lawyers approached about being nominated will politely decline because of the ugliness, uncertainty and delay that now characterize the confirmation process," Bush said. "When people like this decline to be nominated, they miss out on a job. But America is deprived of something far more important: the service of a fair and impartial judge."
When asked to whom Bush was referring with his "search and destroy" line, White House press secretary Dana Perino said, "Just look to some of the confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill — and third party groups that help them."
Also speaking at The Federalist Society meeting, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas joined in the criticism of the confirmation process. His nomination was nearly derailed by a Democratic-controlled Senate in 1991.
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While urging separation of powers, Bush also used his speech to suggest how the Senate should do its work.
"The Senate is no longer asking the right question — whether a nominee is someone who will uphold our Constitution and laws," Bush said. "Instead, nominees are asked to guarantee specific outcomes of cases that might come before the court. If they refuse — as they should — they often find their nomination ends up in limbo instead of on the Senate floor."