Bush: Senate should take up judges this year

President Bush on Monday blasted the Democratically controlled Senate for not giving his judicial nominees an up-or-down vote, urging them to take up the issue when they return next month for a lame-duck session. 

Bush blasted the Senate and what he sees as a “broken confirmation process,” challenging lawmakers to put the confirmation of his judicial nominees at the top of their agenda next month.

{mosads}"If Democrats truly seek a more productive and cooperative relationship in Washington, then they have a perfect opportunity to prove it — by giving these nominees the up-or-down vote they deserve," Bush said.

Speaking in Cincinnati, Bush warned lawmakers that the tactics they use to attack his nominees could come back to haunt them.

"In Washington, it can be easy to get caught up in the politics of the moment," Bush said. "Yet if we do not act to improve the confirmation process, those who are today deploying harmful tactics and maneuvers to thwart nominees will sooner or later find the tables turned. There are things more important, even in Washington, than politics as usual."

Bush talked about his own nominees, extolling the qualities of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito. But he railed against Congress for failing to give a vote to longtime nominee Miguel Estrada, who eventually withdrew his nomination.

"In the end, the people hurt most by these partisan maneuvers are not the nominees, but the American people," Bush said. "That is not what our Founders intended, and presidents and senators from both parties ought to say so."