Specter asks ’08 candidates for position on judges

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked the three remaining White House candidates to clarify how they would vote on pending judicial nominations.

Specter wrote Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), seeking a direct response as to how they would vote on a motion to discharge three pending nominations from the committee. But Specter, rarely one to mince words, said he also wanted to “focus the public’s attention” on the impasse.

{mosads}The nominations have become part of an election-year fight for Republicans as they seek to put more of Bush’s nominees on the bench before he departs.

“I know you are aware of the ongoing controversy as to whether the Judiciary Committee is processing nominations with appropriate dispatch,” Specter wrote.

A spokesman for Specter said none of the three candidates has responded.

Senate Republicans last week threatened to hold up floor action on a patent overhaul bill unless Democrats allow for votes on the nominees.

“There is a growing movement in the Republican caucus to hold up legislation if we cannot [get] confirmation of these judges,” Specter said on the floor. “It is a time-honored practice in this body to put holds on legislation or holds on nominations or otherwise to delay legislation from being considered.”

Specter asked the candidates to weigh in on Peter Keisler, nominee to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Robert Conrad and Steve Matthews, both nominees to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

At the bottom of each letter, he added one final note to all three candidates, just below his signature: “Good luck!”