The Associated Press has reported that Sen. Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican-turned-Democrat, became frustrated with the answers Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor gave during continued confirmation hearings Wednesday.
Although Sen. Specter said Ms. Sotomayor has an “exemplary” record on the bench, he made it clear during the hearing that he didn’t think much about her answers to questions from ranking senators.
Sen. Specter seemed to be among the many members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who failed to elicit any specific responses from the nominee on her views of specific legal issues or established court rulings.
The senator, who made headlines earlier this year when he jumped the Republican ship and strengthened the Democratic majority in the Senate, noted that there was “nothing the Senate can do if a nominee gives one answer to the committee, and then goes to the court and does something else,” according to the AP.
Ms. Sotomayor then responded that such an arrangement was one of the “beauties” of the separation of powers in the American system of goverment.
Beauty, responded Specter, “is in the eye of the beholder,” according to the AP report.
