Minority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) caught conservatives by surprise when he took to the Senate floor May 12 to attack appellate court nominee Henry Saad, whose nomination to the 6th Circuit was first blocked by the Democrats in 2003. Saad is one of four nominees being held up by Michigan's two Democrat senators-Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow-who are still angry that Levin's cousin-in-law, a Clinton-era judicial nominee, never got a vote in the Senate. Commenting on the situation, Reid indicated that the Democrats would probably filibuster Saad, and, according to the Associated Press, said: "All you need to do is have a member go upstairs and look at his confidential report from the FBI and I think you would all agree that there's a problem there." The conservative Committee for Justice promptly responded, "This is character assassination of the lowest order and completely improper."
