Former U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer and other Republicans on Tuesday called on Democratic U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar to vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, calling it the “sensible conclusion.”
But Salazar said Miers is an “unknown quantity” requiring thorough review.
He also expressed concern over a comment by Focus on the Family founder James Dobson that he supported Miers because of inside information.
“Some of what I know I am not at liberty to talk about,” Dobson told The New York Times.
Dobson and other influential conservatives were notified by the White House in advance of Miers’ nomination, the Times reported Tuesday.
That, Salazar said, is “troublesome.”
“It seems to me that all of what the White House knows about Harriet Miers should in fact be made available to the Senate and the American people,” said Salazar, who voted to confirm President Bush’s nomination of Chief Justice John Roberts.
Many from the president’s staunchly conservative base were upset with Miers’ nomination because she does not have a judicial track record and her views on Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling recognizing abortion rights, are unclear.
But members of a newly formed coalition – Colorado for Justice Miers, headed by Schaffer and former U.S. Attorney Mike Norton of Colorado – said they trusted the president’s decision and that Miers would bring a new perspective to the court.
