(Host) Senator Patrick Leahy says he’ll postpone creating a "Truth Commission" to investigate allegations of illegal detainee interrogation techniques by the Bush administration.
He says he’ll wait until after the Senate has confirmed Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
Leahy says the commission is needed to help determine if any members of the Bush administration authorized the use of torture at Guantanamo Bay.
Leahy is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee – the panel that will soon hold hearings on the Sotomayor nomination.
He says debate over the Truth Commission bill needs to be postponed because the Sotomayor nomination is one of his top priorities right now.
(Leahy) "There are only so many more things that I can handle. This is an immediate thing. It’s something we can get done. With the opposition of the Republicans and to some extent the White House the Truth Commission is going to have to wait until we get Sotomayor done."
(Host)Leahy says he needs to turn his full attention to the Sotomayor hearings because some of her critics have unfairly attacked her:
(Leahy) "I want her to be able to answer to critics like one of the leaders of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, who said that she’s no different than the head of the Ku Klux Klan, and another leader of the Republican Party, Newt Gingrich, who says she’s a bigot. Well, of course she’s neither and she should have a chance to answer her critics."
(Host) Leahy says he hopes to have the full Senate vote on the Sotomayor nomination by the end of next month.