Fox News Channel Interview - Transcript
Interview
Fox News Channel Interview - Transcript
FOX NEWS CHANNEL INTERVIEW WITH SENATOR JOHN CORNYN (R-TX)
SUBJECTS: SUPREME COURT, SENATOR ARLEN SPECTER INTERVIEWER: MARTHA MACCALLUM
Copyright ©2009 by Federal News Service, Inc., Ste. 500, 1000 Vermont Ave, Washington, DC 20005 USA. Federal News Service is a private firm not affiliated with the federal government. No portion of this transcript may be copied, sold or retransmitted without the written authority of Federal News Service, Inc. Copyright is not claimed as to any part of the original work prepared by a United States government officer or employee as a part of that person's official duties. For information on subscribing to the FNS Internet Service at www.fednews.com, please email Carina Nyberg at cnyberg@fednews.com or call 1-202-216-2706.
MS. MACCALLUM: The last president's nominees -- here's what Karl Rove wrote today in The Wall Street Journal. He says, "Mr. Obama will pay a price for voting against Mr. Roberts and Samuel Alito, after calling them qualified and lauding their temperament, humility, excellence and passion for the law and respect for precedent."
So should we expect confirmation fireworks this time around? Let's ask someone who will play a major role in this process, of course, Senator John Cornyn is a Republican from Texas and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senator Cornyn, welcome, always good to have you with us.
SEN. CORNYN: Thank you very much.
MS. MACCALLUM: A lot of conservatives, of course, have a memory that is very strong for what happened and what President Obama, then- Senator Obama's take on Roberts and Alito was. Is that going to come back to bite him?
SEN. CORNYN: Well, I don't think this should be about revenge. I think Democrats treated President Bush's nominees pretty badly, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito, both highly qualified Supreme Court judges.
What this is about though is, I think, President Obama taking his time to make sure that the person he does nominate is qualified, doesn't have any problems like some of the members of his Cabinet have had with failure to pay their taxes and then have to withdraw that nominee. But thankfully, Justice Souter has now given us a timeline. He's not actually leaving until the end of June and the Supreme Court breaks and doesn't meet again until October, it allows us to do our job, which is to do the investigation to ask the questions and to make sure that this nominee is somebody who understands the role that judges play, that is to interpret the law, not to legislate from the bench.
MS. MACCALLUM: Yeah. And that brings me to my next point, which is a statement that has gotten a lot of attention and it was one that President Obama made a while back. He talked about empathy and the meaning of empathy and understanding in choosing a judge. So let's put up this other quote from Karl Rove today because he raises this question of empathy and the role that it might play in choosing a judge. He says that that could get a little tricky for President Obama's pick. He says, "Should the empathy standard apply to the unborn? How about gun owners? What about religious conservatives who believe that the Court has removed religious influences from American life?"
What about the role of empathy and understanding, you know, it means different things to do different people, right?
SEN. CORNYN: It does, and it depends on your perspective. That's why this is such a dangerous ground, I think, for the president to walk on. Really what we need are judges that will enforce the law and the Constitution as written and that's not always an easy job and it's a very important job. But we need somebody who understands the difference between policymakers, which are the elected representatives of the people who can be voted in and out of office and those who are interpreting the Constitution and laws who cannot, who have lifetime tenure.
So I think this is going to be an important discussion about what is the proper role for judges in our government and in our society. I think we've seen sometimes that judges will make decisions that the public would never stand for.
MS. MACCALLUM: Right.
SEN. CORNYN: And basically use that as a way to legislate.
MS. MACCALLUM: Senator Cornyn, I cannot let you go without asking you to comment on some of the fascinating inside politics that are going on in the Senate Judiciary Committee right now, thanks to the fact that Arlen Specter has now become a Democrat and it was, the word was that Senator Durbin decided he was going to put him as head of the crimes subcommittee on Judiciary, the main background here is that Senator Specter has a number of very high profile committee leadership positions and he might lose them now that he's a Democrat.
Let's put up this quote from Senator Leahy who was, I guess, a little surprised to hear that Durbin and Specter were doing some deals behind the scenes. He says, "Oh, hold on everybody. We need to work something out here." He says, "Nothing has been worked out." He says, "Oh, he's now the chairman?" meaning Durbin. "This is great."
What do you think about what Senator Leahy has to say about all this?
SEN. CORNYN: Well, I have to tell you, seniority around here is, you know, very potent stuff and people protected very well. I think what happened is that Senator Specter left the Republican Party because he realized he could not get elected in a Republican primary in Pennsylvania and this was really a matter of self-preservation; it wasn't about any matter of principle or disagreement on policy.
So now he's, unfortunately, suffering some of the consequences of his choice --
MS. MACCALLUM: Senator, I've got to let you go, but do you think he's regretting it at all, Senator Specter, this move?
SEN. CORNYN: Well, I think once you cross that bridge, you can never return again. So I'm sure he has some regrets, but he's got to live with them.
MS. MACCALLUM: All right. Senator John Cornyn, always a pleasure to have you here, sir. Thank you very much.
SEN. CORNYN: Thank you.
END.
Source