MTP Transcript for Oct. 29

LT. GOV. STEELE: Tim, that, that’s a “gotcha” question, and I...

MR. RUSSERT: Hardly.

LT. GOV. STEELE: Well, no...

MR. RUSSERT: It’s one of the most important tasks of a U.S. Senator.

LT. GOV. STEELE: But I think — it is, but that’s living in the past, and what does that change? And what- my approach to a Senate nomination by the president for the United States — U.S. Supreme Court is to listen to them and to hear them out and to evaluate their jurisprudence, their, their judicial temperament. I don’t have a litmus test on any issue. I want to be able to take down, take down their words, to listen and engage them. I have not had that privilege with the, the nine justices, to sit down and actually grill them on issues that I would think would be important, to see if I, as a senator, at that time, would vote for them. So I’m not going to, I’m not going to go into that, you know, “woulda, shoulda, coulda,” because I don’t — I didn’t have the privilege of that conversation. Going forward, as a United States senator, I will look them in the eye and get an assessment from them whether or not they have the temperament to be a judge, not a legislator but a judge.

MR. RUSSERT: If you had that chance with the nine sitting justices, would you have opposed any of them?

REP. CARDIN: Tim, it’s amazing. Mr. Steele uses my record in Congress, my background, to project what I will do in the future, but it’s not fair to ask him what he would’ve done if he was faced with the confirmation issue.

LT. GOV. STEELE: Because you have a record, sir. You have a vote.

REP. CARDIN: Well, the Judge Alito issue came up when both of us were U.S. Senate candidates. I came out with a position against the confirmation of Judge Alito. I said that the standards that I would’ve used — and I’d laid out the standards. I was willing to take a position on it because I think the voters of Maryland are entitled to know what standards we will use to evaluate judicial appointments. And the Judge Alito issue came up during our candidacy for the United States Senate. I took a position. I was willing to stand up. Mr. Steele was not.

LT. GOV. STEELE: But it...

MR. RUSSERT: Would you have voted for Clarence Thomas?

REP. CARDIN: I’m going to be frank. I probably would’ve voted against Clarence Thomas, but I was — I think the confirmation process, I didn’t focus on it as a voting — to be a voting member of the United States Senate at that time. We did when Judge Alito, because that was during our Senate campaign. I think, at the time, I expressed that I would’ve voted against Judge Thomas.

MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Steele, you...

LT. GOV. STEELE: Why?

REP. CARDIN: Because of his, the standards that I would’ve used. The standards that I would’ve used, yes, judicial temperament and experience, but a person also who wants to become a judge on the federal court has to have an understanding of the Constitution and its protections against abuses of government. To me, that is an important standard for anyone who wants to become a federal judge. I want to make sure that they’re going to protect the consumers. I want to make sure they’re going to protect civil rights. I want to make sure that they’re going to protect the, the people of Maryland against the abuses of government.

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