Going to War Over a Judge

By Viveca Novak

Why are Senate Democrats kicking up such a fuss over a Hispanic lawyer who wants to be a judge? Their filibuster against Bush's nomination of Miguel Estrada, a Honduran-born Washington attorney, to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is risky for the party, since the G.O.P. has resorted to phone banks and radio ads to portray opposition to the nomination as anti-Hispanic.

The fight is in part about ideology. Democrats hear from Republican insiders that Estrada's beliefs are to the right of those of Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court's most conservative Justice. And they fear that Bush would try to elevate Estrada to the high court. The showdown is also about process. Estrada has refused to answer questions about his stands on such issues as abortion and affirmative action, and the White House won't release his old Justice Department memos. Underlying it all is the ill will toward President Bush that has built up as a result of such moves as his scorched-earth midterm-election tactics against candidates like Georgia's Max Cleland and his renomination of judges who were rejected when the Democrats were in charge last year. With both houses of Congress in G.O.P. control, the Democrats believe the filibuster, which requires only 41 Senators to succeed, is their last remaining weapon--and they're willing to use it. --By Viveca Novak