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that the media finally has declared last year's presidential election
over, it's time for Senate Democrats to quit punishing a key Bush
administration nominee because he is the son of Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia.
Six months
ago, Eugene Scalia was nominated to become the top lawyer at the
Department of Labor. One month ago, a Senate committee approved
his nomination. Today, however, he still languishes without a floor
vote. If one were held, he would probably win narrow approval —
he made it through committee because Jim Jeffords (I., Vt.) voted
for him.
In a particularly
sleazy move, Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd are now charging that Scalia
"seriously misrepresented his record" in his confirmation
testimony — something nobody said at the time, when such liberal
senators as Paul Wellstone were praising his character and Kennedy
himself was calling him "an outstanding lawyer" with whom
he merely had policy disagreements. Kennedy and Dodd don't back
up the charge.
Nor do the
other charges have merit. Scalia has represented employees in labor-law
cases, contrary to the Democrats. While Kennedy and Dodd claim that
Scalia is weak on sexual harassment-insert your own joke here-the
fact is that his work on the subject has been favorably cited by
Democratic judicial appointees Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Guido Calabresi.
It is true that Scalia opposed President Clinton's proposed ergonomics
regulations; so did a majority of the Congress, which is why they
failed. If anyone is misrepresenting Scalia's record, it appears
to be Kennedy and Dodd.
It is hard
to believe that Scalia would suffer this treatment if he had a different
last name. Senate Democrats and their union allies must at last
accept what most of their friends in the media have conceded: George
W. Bush won more votes in Florida, the Supreme Court did not snatch
victory from Al Gore, and the current administration has the right
to staff itself with capable people.
In
Other Scalia News...
Father Scalia reveals what he'd do if there were a popular vote
on national I.D. cards: "Personally,
I'd probably vote against it."
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