“Meet the Press” host Tim Russert seems to think he extracted a significant admission out of U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer on Sunday. I’m not even sure how to describe this, so just follow along with Media Nation and see if you agree with Russert — or if you instead have the same head-scratching reaction that I had.
The subject: Whether and under what circumstances Schumer, a New York Democrat, would support a filibuster aimed at defeating the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito. From the transcript:
SCHUMER: I haven’t made up my mind about how to vote and certainly whether to block him or not, whether to urge my colleagues in the caucus to filibuster. But he’s got to answer a lot of questions.
RUSSERT: But you haven’t ruled out a filibuster?
SCHUMER: Have not ruled it out, no.
Later in the program came this exchange:
SCHUMER: Judge Alito has stated unequivocally, just as you said, not only his personal view on pro-life, on pro-choice — we approved lots of judges who were pro-life. I’m very strongly pro-choice, but I voted for 190 judges who were pro-life that the president has nominated. But he [Alito] has stated his constitutional view, his legal view, and that is that the Constitution does not provide for a right to an abortion. The worst thing that could happen with Judge Alito is if he tries to duck the question. Let him say, as you said, one way or the another, he doesn’t agree but he’ll respect precedent or this is one of those precedents that should be re-examined and turned over. But if he says, “I can’t answer that question ’cause it might show bias,” which is what John Roberts said, he can’t do that because he’s already shown bias, not in a pejorative sense. He’s shown his view on this.
RUSSERT: Well, if he has 51 votes, he can do it.
SCHUMER: Well, you know — but that’s the issue here. And we Democrats —
RUSSERT: If he did that, would you filibuster?
SCHUMER: Well, it would certainly — if he continued to do that on all of these issues that I mentioned, if he ducked the question, the American people have a right to answer and we know what’s going on here. Seventy percent of the American people say they don’t want a justice nominated who would overturn Roe v. Wade.
RUSSERT: No, but on the question of abortion, if he in your mind ducks that question, is that enough to filibuster?
SCHUMER: You can’t judge on one specific question. If he continuously, given his previous record, refuses to answer questions and hid behind this shibboleth, “I can’t answer this ’cause it might come before me,” it would increase the chance of a filibuster, absolutely.
Still later, Russert was interviewing Kate Michelman, former head of NARAL Pro-Choice America, when he suddenly said this:
RUSSERT: You just heard Senator Schumer, Kate Michelman, say that even if Judge Alito will not answer questions about Roe v. Wade, that in itself is not grounds for filibuster.
Is that what Schumer said? Maybe my ability to understand plain English isn’t what it used to be. But I don’t think so. It strikes me that Russert is reading universes into Schumer’s statement that “You can’t judge on one specific question.” But Schumer’s statement that he hasn’t ruled out a filibuster seems a lot more pertinent.