SEN. DODD: Mr. President, first let me thank the distinguished manager on the floor and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Mr. President, like my colleagues I have a lengthy statement here that I have prepared, but I will ask unanimous consent that that be included in the record as if read.
Mr. President, I think like all of us, or many of us here, we begin with a presumption to support Presidential nominees for whatever position, including the United States Supreme Court. That has been the case with this Senator over the past 10 years. I have supported all but one of President Reagan's and now President Bush's nominations to the United States Supreme Court.
Regretfully, Mr. President, in this case I will not support this nominee. Mr. President, if I had to paraphrase the remarks I've prepared, it comes down to the issue of doubt, serious doubt. I certainly, like everyone else, was deeply impressed with the background of Clarence Thomas. It's a compelling story. There are very few in our generation who have been born in the postwar period that have traveled the distance that this man has in the few short years of his life.
Mr. President, I'm also impressed with his intellectual and legal background, as a graduate of Yale Law School in my home state of Connecticut. But Mr. President, I was left with doubts, doubts that were reflected in the first series of hearings which Clarence Thomas testified regarding his appreciation of case law and precedent, his unwillingness for I think now obvious reasons to express his own views on some of the important matters that have been before that Court.
I regret that Clarence Thomas may have been over-handled by people from the White House and elsewhere, to counsel him as to how to respond to questions. In a sense, Mr. President, I blame ourselves in part for that because God help anyone who comes up and expresses a definitive view of one of the hot button issues of our day.
So in a sense we bear culpability for people unwilling to come forward and express those views or the fact that the universe, or the world in which we choose these candidates from has so shrunk that anyone who really does have any views could not pass muster in this body.
Mr. President, like everyone else I was riveted to our television sets this weekend, watching the compelling testimony before the Judiciary Committee. I have great admiration for the chairman of that committee and members. They were put in the terrible position of having to deal with a very, very divisive, a very emotional topic and subject matter, sexual harassment.
Mr. President, I could draw no definitive conclusions from this weekend except, of course, that sexual harassment is an issue that deserves far more attention than has been given over the past number of years in this country. But I didn't leave necessarily with one clear idea of who was guilty of perjury or guilty of the crime charged. But Mr. President, I was left with doubts. It was not cleared up for me.
And Mr. President, I happen to believe that when voting for a nominee to serve on the highest court of this land, where the only weapon the Court has is moral persuasion -- they can't point a gun at anyone's head, they can't bring an army together to make sure that their decisions are obeyed by the people of this land -- it is only moral persuasion which ultimately allows them to carry the day. And Mr. President, I would be deeply concerned that that moral persuasion, the only weapon of the Court, would somehow be eroded by this notation.
For those reasons I have my doubts and I happen to believe if doubts are primarily what you have, then it seems to me you must err on the side of caution, if erring is going to be the case. Mr. President, if Judge Thomas is confirmed, I hope to be proven wrong about these doubts, but Mr. President, I can't take that chance for as much as a four-decade appointment to a court that will decide many of the compelling issues of our day.
I have great respect for our colleague from Missouri, and I spoke with him recently before taking the floor to tell him personally of my decision. It's not been an easy decision. In fact, I was leaning in favor of this nomination. But because I could not rid my own mind of the doubts that have been gripping me over the past number of weeks, that I regretfully have taken the decision I have this afternoon, Mr. President, and with regret I will vote not to confirm Judge Clarence Thomas to be associate justice of the United States Supreme Court.