Why my senator, Tom Carper, said he filibustered Miguel Estrada

I feel confident with Joe Biden when it comes to rogue judicial nominees but when it comes to moderate, DLC-card carrying Tom Carper well I worry a bit.

So I probably wrote more letters to Carper than Biden because Biden really is a sure bet to vote No and even filibuster. And oddly enough Carper has been (he wasn't part of the 7 democrats who made the compromise) but I still worry because he's a moderate.

Miguel Estrada was nominated as a circuit court judge and was coached the same exact way as Alito is now. Be very vague with the answers on anything that could make you look extreme. And to help protect Estrada, the Bush regime stonewalled the democrats on any requests for papers related to Estrada's former work with prior republican administrations.

Carper initial replies was about how he would keep an open mind and judge fairly the candidate. He also mentioned that he was hoping to meet with Estrada personally to ask additional questions and was hoping some of the papers would be released.

But ultimately Carper supported the filibuster and his justification was Vagueness with the answers to several key questions asked

VAGUENESS - basically Estrada didn't really answer the questions but through careful coaching by the repuke advisors he skirted around the questions with answers that didn't really complete the question.

Vagueness can be used to filibuster - that is our justification. Democrats asked the questions but Alito isn't answering them. And until he answers the questions we need to keep filibustering him!