Ashcroft asks ABA to help speed judge nominations

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Attorney General John Ashcroft asked the American Bar Association on Tuesday to press for speedy approval of the Bush administration's nominees for the federal bench.

In a speech to the ABA's annual convention in Chicago, Ashcroft noted the ABA had reviewed the qualifications of 17 of the 44 pending nominees and declared them to be "qualified" or "well qualified."

"You could use your considerable clout to help serve the American people by making sure that these nominees whom you have found so qualified have an opportunity to be reviewed and voted upon by the United States Senate," Ashcroft said.

Ashcroft said only one of the first 11 nominees announced by President George W. Bush at the White House on May 9 has received a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. But a spokesman for Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, disputed Ashcroft's suggestion that the panel was stalling.

"Some Republican critics seem to be struggling mightily to keep straight faces while wrongly charging the Senate with delays," said Leahy's chief spokesman, David Carle.

Carle also blamed the administration for changing the procedures for ABA screening, which now reviews candidates after the nominations have been made.

"As expected, this has meant a built-in delay of about two months," he said.

Ashcroft did not refer to the controversial decision by the White House to remove the ABA's long-standing power to shape the federal judiciary by receiving from the White House exclusive secret advance information on nominees.

Republicans accused the ABA of a liberal bias in its screening of nominees and of selectively leaking of information to damage judicial prospects. The ABA vigorously disputed allegations of bias.

The ABA would then determine in confidence whether a candidate was qualified. Those who were deemed not qualified or who received some "not qualified" votes were often quietly withdrawn.

Democrats are still requiring ABA reviews before they will consider the nominations.

Ashcroft said the 44 nominees put forward for the federal bench by the August recess represents a record pace, and reflects the sense of urgency President Bush feels in trying to fill the 108 vacancies out of 862 positions.