WASHINGTON, March 6 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush on Thursday called the decision by Senate Democrats to continue blocking the vote of his federal nominee Miguel Estrada a "disgrace."
"Their tactics are an injustice and unfair to the good man I have nominated, and unfaithful to the Senate's own obligations," Bush said in a released statement.
Bush picked Estrada last year to sit on the nation's second-highest court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but Democrats have complained they want more information about Estrada's legal philosophies. The president said the Senate has a responsibility to exercise its constitutional advice and consent function and hold an up-or-down vote on a judicial nominee within a reasonable time.
"Some senators who once insisted that every appeals court nominee deserves a timely vote have now abandoned that principle for partisan politics," Bush said.
Democrats vowed a filibuster of Estrada's nomination until they received answers to the questions they had about the Washington attorney. They said Estrada refused to answer questions on the death penalty, a woman's right to choose and environmental protection.
Bush said lawmakers were holding Estrada to a double standard and vowed to stand by his nominee's side until he is sworn in as a judge.
"I call on the Senate Democratic leadership to stop playing politics, and permit a vote on Miguel Estrada's nomination," the president said. "Let each senator vote as he or she thinks best, but give the man a vote."
Senate rules dictate a nomination cannot be brought to vote if the Democrats can provide at least 41 votes to sustain their filibuster.
On Capitol Hill, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., told reporters that Democrats want Estrada to provide information regarding his background and positions so they can "make an honest judgment about his qualifications."
"All of us as employers ask the same of every job applicant. Any job applicant who would refuse to fill out the final three pages of a five-page job application would not get a job in my office, and he or she shouldn't get a job in the courts of our land, either. And so that's our position. That will be our position, regardless of whatever number of votes that are cast," Daschle said.
The dispute has worsened an already contentious relationship between the White House and Senate Democrats over judicial nominations. Democrats accused Estrada of having too little experience to serve on the circuit court. Bush called Estrada, a Honduran immigrant and graduate of Harvard Law School, an example of what makes the United States "so profound and so hopeful and so promising."
The White House said regional appeals courts have a 15 percent judicial vacancy rate. Since taking office, Bush said, he has sent 34 "qualified, mainstream" federal courts of appeals nominees to the Senate, but only half of them have received a vote in the Senate and 12 of the 17 remaining nominees have been waiting more than a year for a floor vote.
