Monday, May 16, 2005 | 11:08 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has drawn fire for a comment he made about a controversial judicial nominee, but Reid aides said today he didn't do anything wrong.
An activist group has filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee about a statement Reid made last week about 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Henry Saad.
And Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Friday sent a letter to Reid and Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to "express the administration's concern" about Reid's remark.
Reid raised eyebrows over comments delivered on the Senate floor Thursday. He was talking about a potential compromise to a confrontation between Democrats and Republicans over filibusters and Senate rules governing votes on nominees.
"Henry Saad would have been filibustered anyway. He's one of those nominees. All you need to do is have a member go upstairs and look at his confidential report from the FBI, and I think we would all agree there is a problem there," Reid said.
Reid "recklessly" ignored Senate rules designed to protect confidential information, Center for Individual Freedom President Jeffrey Mazzella said. The group, which filed the complaint, opposes Democratic filibusters and lobbied for all Bush nominees to receive a Senate vote. The group calls itself a "nonprofit, nonpartisan constitutional and free-market advocacy organization."
"Through innuendo, Sen. Reid has now resorted to character assassination of the worst kind in an indefensible effort to disgrace a sitting judge and nominee to the 6th Circuit," Mazzella said.
In his letter, Gonzales said, "References to the contents of those (FBI) files, or attempts to characterize such contents, as occurred recently on the Senate floor, are, in the administration's view, outside the limitations on use of this sensitive information."
Reid has not elaborated on the statement. But his aides said he did not break Senate rule because he did not publicly disclose anything new.
"The attacks on Sen. Reid and the complaint are just aimed at distracting Americans from Judge Saad's outrageous record," Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said.
Hafen noted that the Washington Times on June 4 reported that the Senate Judiciary Committee met privately the previous day to discuss a routine background check on Saad conducted by the FBI. "During that meeting, Judge Saad's hopes of getting out of committee faded," the newspaper reported.
In an odd twist, Republican staffers accidentally allowed at least part of the closed-door meeting to be publicly broadcast over the Internet, according to the Times.
Reid has not seen Saad's FBI file and does not know the specifics of it, but he is aware that Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have concerns about it, Hafen said. Reid and other Democrats have also said they are concerned about some of Saad's decisions, especially in worker rights cases.
Reid and Senate Republican leaders have been locked in a broader confrontation over Senate rules governing voting on nominees. Democrats want to protect their ability to filibuster, while Republicans seek "up-or-down" votes on all nominees.
A final showdown is expected to unfold this week.
Saad is among the seven nominees that have been rejected by Democrats and re-nominated this year by President Bush.
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