A few moments ago, during Senate debate on the federal appeals court

nomination of Miguel Estrada, Minority Whip made the Democrats’ strongest

statement yet that the party is determined to kill the nomination.

Referring to Democratic demands for internal Justice Department memos

Estrada wrote in the 1990s — memos the Department has said are “highly

privileged” — Reid said, “I would say that without that information, Miguel

Estrada will never be a federal judge. We have talked to our members, and

it doesn’t matter if there is one cloture vote or 50 cloture votes, we will

all be together on that….We’re going to see this one through.”