Sen. Reid Skewered for 'Underhanded Smear' of Judicial Nominee
by Bill Fancher and Jody Brown
May 17, 2005
(AgapePress) - Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is under fire for violating Senate rules. During a speech last week, the Nevada lawmaker alluded to what he called a "problem" in a confidential FBI report on a judicial nominee.Senate rules prohibit mentioning or alluding to any confidential or classified information when debating an issue on the Senate floor. According to Standing Rule of the Senate 29, Section 5, any senator who does so "shall be liable ... to suffer expulsion from the body." Senator Reid apparently violated that rule in referring to an FBI report on Judge Harry Saad, a nominee to the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"Henry Saad would have been filibustered anyway. He's one of those nominees," the Democratic senator stated. "All you need to do is have a member go upstairs and look at his confidential report from the FBI, and I think we would all agree there is a problem there."
The Washington Times also reports that a "Memorandum of Understanding" covering the use of FBI background reports limits access to committee members and the nominee's home-state senators. Reid falls into neither category, says the Times. The senator's comments have been described as "an underhanded smear" and "character assassination of the lowest order," says the newspaper, because Reid has referred to information he will never be asked to prove.
Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Family Research Council, says Reid's remarks show "blatant disregard" for the confidentiality of the Senate and "misuse" of privileged FBI information. "Senator Reid made uncorroborated and ambiguous claims to smear the reputation of Judge Saad," Perkins says in a press release. "[Reid] is clearly using desperate tactics in his effort to continue his unprecedented use of the filibuster against well-qualified judicial nominees."
Manuel Miranda of the National Coalition to End Judicial Filibusters was outraged at Reid's action. "The one nominee singled out for this sort of humiliation and embarrassment is the first Arab-American ever nominated to the appellate court," he notes. "It is shocking to me -- so much so that I couldn't type yesterday in anger."
Both Perkins and Miranda believe Reid should face censure or expulsion from the Senate for the violation of rules and ethics.
"I call on the Senate Ethics Committee to review Senator Reid's violation of Senate confidentiality rules," the FRC president states. "[He] owes an apology to [Saad], the U.S. Senate, and the America people for inappropriately using a confidential FBI report to smear Judge Saad and block his nomination."
Miranda echoes those sentiments. "He should be censured by his colleagues. He should be," he says. "The penalty for talking about a classified, confidential matter like he did, in the Senate rules, is expulsion. That is how seriously the Senate has ... taken this matter [in the past]."
Miranda should know. He lost his job working for the Senate when he allegedly made public some Democratic memos that called for the filibusters of nominees simply because they were Latinos, black women, and pro-life Christians.
