| The chairman
of a massive coalition of groups working to kill the
filibuster was forced to resign from the Senate Judiciary
Committee last year after admitting to raiding thousands
of private Democratic and GOP strategy memos relating
to judicial nominees without permission—a fact
that continues to go unnoticed in media reports, RAW
STORY has found.
Chairman of the National Coalition to End Judicial
Filibusters Manuel Miranda admitted to accessing thousands
of private Democratic and Republican memos without permission
in 2004, which he
likened to “to finding documents left on his
desk.”
He was a formerly counsel
to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) on judicial
nominations.
A probe in early 2004 concluded “that more than
4,500 files of committee Democrats were accessed by
former Hatch aides Manuel Miranda and Jason Lundell.”
His tapping of strategy memos on judicial nominees went
on for months; their contents appeared in the Wall Street
Journal and the Washington Times.
Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, Former Chairman of
the Judiciary Committee also complained
in a Deseret Morning News article in 2004 that Miranda
accessed about 100 of his own files “without his
knowledge or permission.”
Several news outlets newspapers have quoted Miranda
as a source on judicial nominations and the confirmation
process.
Memos Miranda leaked to the press said that Democrats
and progressive groups worked together the block the
nomination of Miguel Estrada to an appeals court because
he was Latino, hoping to forestall Bush scoring political
advantage by a Latino's confirmation. Estrada later
withdrew his name from the running.
Another memo said Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) was asked
by liberal groups to thwart the nomination of other
judges until after the court had heard an important
affirmative action case.
Miranda resigned
in February 2004. He later sued Attorney General John
Ashcroft to stop an investigation by the Justice Department.
He also accused Senate Democrats of hurting his future
job prospects.
Newspapers and other agencies have regularly quoted
Miranda as a credible source on the “nuclear option”
without even mentioning his past role in pirating memos
on judicial nominees.
On May 17, the Washington
Post quoted Miranda’s take on the debate
on judicial nominations and the filibuster in the
Senate: “Manuel Miranda, a former aide to Frist
who is now chairman of the National Coalition to End
Judicial Filibusters, says that "the draconian
implications" of "nuclear option" expressed
the urgency that filibuster opponents felt. "If
these weren't such ominous and terrible terms, I don't
think it would have exploded in the press," says
Miranda.”
On May 16, the Augusta Free Press quoted
Miranda: "The stakes are possibly more pronounced
for Democrats, said Manuel Miranda, the chairman of
the Washington, D.C.,-based National Coalition to
End Judicial Filibusters. "If they are successful
at this stage, what that would mean is that this would
continue to be a political issue, and that wouldn't
be good for Democrats," said Miranda, the former
nominations counsel to Frist."
On May 15, in a Sunday feature titled “At Center
of Senate Showdown, A Boxer Takes On a Surgeon,”
the New
York Times identified Miranda as a “former
aide to Dr. Frist who is helping orchestrate conservative
support for the rule change” to quote his assessment
of the relationship between Sens. Frist and Reid.
On May 9, Knight
Ridder identified Miranda only as a former Frist
aide: "Frist's fortunes will hinge on this fight;
as his ex-counsel, Manuel Miranda, said Monday, Frist
"now has a long-awaited appointment with his
destiny." That language is Shakespearean. Indeed,
it was Henry V, knowing that he'd get the credit or
blame for the war he was about to wage, who declared,
""The day, my friends and all things stay
for me."
On April 16, the Washington
Times published a story about Sen. John McCain
opposing the “nuclear option.” In it,
the Washington Times quoted Miranda multiple times
as if he were a legitimate source on the subject.
At no point did the story mention anything about Miranda’s
questionable past.
On April 5, The Hill reported
that lobbyists on K Street were worried that invoking
the “nuclear option” will lead to a halt
of Senate business. In the story, Miranda is quoted
and referred to as “a former Frist aide.”
The Hill, which had previously reported many times
on the Miranda scandal, failed to mention it in this
story.
At least one news outlet, ABC
News, identified Miranda's past, IDing him as "a
former nominations counsel for Senator Frist, Mr. Miranda
resigned from the majority leader's office after leaking
strategy memos from activist groups to Senate Democrats
on which nominations to filibuster. "
Media Matters, a progressive media watchdog group,
raised
concerns about the quoting of Miranda in April;
Miranda continues to be regularly quoted without his
background or role in pirating Democratic judicial strategy
memorandums. His past has been often
raised at the liberal blog Daily Kos.
Article originally published May 18, 2005. |
