After resigning in the midst of a political scandal, former Senate aide Manuel Miranda (SFS ‘82) returned to Georgetown Tuesday to address roughly fifty College Republicans and members of the Lecture Fund. Miranda, however, was not on the defensive about his possible role in a well-publicized scandal which forced his resignation on Feb. 6.
Instead, he went on the offensive, taking aim at the Democratic party’s “unjust use of a constitutional practice” in using Senate procedure to block President Bush’s nominations of judges to the federal district and appeals courts.
Miranda, who served under Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), came under investigation in January after he was accused of improperly accessing confidential Democratic memos. Miranda said that he discovered the memos, which dealt with the Democrats’ strategy of opposing President Bush’s to the courts, on an open computer server after a computer glitch.
Miranda said Tuesday that Democrats were abusing Senate rules by preventing a vote on the nominations. “These opening salvos were not business as usual,” he said. “They were an assault on American constitutionalism.”
In the last two years, Democratic Senators have blocked the nomination of several of Bush’s choices for federal judges, arguing that they are biased or too conservative.
Referring to the well-publicized Bush nominations of Charles Pickering and Miguel Estrada, which Senate Democrats opposed, he argued that nominees have been unfairly painted by the left as racists or homophobes.
Referring to his discoveries in the Democratic memos, Miranda accused Democrats of applying a litmus test on the issue of abortion and catering to the wishes of special interest groups that do not reflect the will of the people.
Democrats and Republicans really function differently on this issue. The relationship between Democrats and special interest groups is really hand-in-glove,” he said. With greater resources and organization, he said, Democrats have created an industry to oppose judicial nominees.
“Indirectly this is all about campaign finance,” he said. “This is all about money.”
College Republicans seemed pleased by the speech, which was also funded by the Georgetown Lecture Fund. “I think that Mr. Miranda accurately reflects what most of the Republicans have said,” said Jady Hsin, (CAS ‘07) President of the College Republicans. “The Democrats should be advised to play by the rules.”
