PBS高端访谈:帕迪莫尼:戈萨奇上位是共和党人使用'核选项'的结果

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: As the fight over Neil Gorsuch continued to play out in the U.S. Senate today, I sat down with Democrat¹ Patty Murray, the four-term senator from Washington State, who is one of the majority of Democrats² opposed to Gorsuch taking that vacant seat on the Supreme³ Court.

　　SEN. PATTY MURRAY, D-Wash.: What concerns me at the end of the day is a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, someone's judgment⁴ and their beliefs in terms of protecting people's rights in this country is extremely important. And, for me, he didn't pass the test.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: You made a particular point of speaking about his position on reproductive rights. Why is that so important to you?

　　SEN. PATTY MURRAY: This Supreme Court will consider cases coming to it that ultimately could overturn Roe⁵ v. Wade⁶, which would mean that women would — could possibly lose their constitutionally protected right to make their own health care choices.

　　To me, that is an issue I have seen in my own lifetime that has made a real impact for women, personally, their health and their economy. And I do not want this country to go backwards⁷.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: And you have spoken before about your own awareness⁸ in your personal life.

　　SEN. PATTY MURRAY: When I was in college, Roe v. Wade wasn't the law of the land many years ago.

　　And I remember as good today as I did then a friend of mine, very close to, lived with her in the dorm, who went out on a date, like many young women did, and was what we today call date-raped, but we didn't have a term for it then, ended up getting pregnant.

　　There was no place she could go, nobody — no protections of law, ended up finding what we would now call a back-alley doctor who performed an abortion⁹. And as a result of a botched procedure, she, at a very young age, lost her ability to ever have a family.

　　I don't want to go back to that. We now have a time when women can get the health care they need when they need it for whatever reason, and they have the protection of law to do that.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: These are terrible individual situations, and you have just described one of them.

　　At the same time, you know that there are many Americans who feel strongly in the other way. I think the latest Pew poll showed 37 percent of Americans don't believe in abortion under almost any circumstances.

　　How do you respect their point of view?

　　SEN. PATTY MURRAY: Well, I do respect that.

　　For a deeply religious purpose, there are people who do not personally believe that abortion is acceptable. I understand that. But this is a country where we don't impose religious beliefs on the entire country. This is a country where we accept differences of opinion.

　　戈萨奇上位是共和党人使用'核选项'的结果

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: You're not only opposing Judge Gorsuch. You and other Democrats are mounting a filibuster¹⁰ to do all you can do to prevent a vote.

　　That, as you know, could lead to a significant change in the rules in the Senate, which will have an even more long-lasting effect. Why go that extra step?

　　SEN. PATTY MURRAY: Well, this is not our choice. This is the Republicans' choice.

　　Normally, our Supreme Court justices do get over 60 votes. And that's important in this country. If you don't get 60 votes, it means that you're not a justice that can really be a justice for the entire land.

　　So, it's an important hurdle¹¹. There are not 60 people in the Senate today who believe that we should have this nomination¹². And I can't vote just because Mitch wants me to. I — that's — my vote is really important to me.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: There is the argument, Senator, at the same time, even made by other Democrats, who are saying, Democrats shouldn't push this to the wall on this vote, the argument being the Democrats should wait to cut a deal of some sort of with the Republican leadership to say, we are going to go along with this one, but the next time, we are going to preserve the rule as it is now.

　　SEN. PATTY MURRAY: That's a nice conversation, but I think Mitch McConnell showed his cards over a year ago.

　　I think he sent a very strong signal then that his goal was to put someone on the Supreme Court that he felt was much more conservative. So, I don't expect that, if somehow a deal could be made where Democrats could get over their feeling that this wasn't the right person and give a yes vote, that, in the next instance, that he wouldn't change the rules anyway.

　　So, you stand up for your principles here. And that's what we're standing¹³ up for.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: We're learning this morning that the chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence stepping aside from his role running the investigation¹⁴ into Russian interference in the U.S. election last year.

　　What does that say to you? Does that now give you confidence that this investigation will be conducted fairly on the part of the Congress?

　　SEN. PATTY MURRAY: Well, I think it's a very important step in the right direction, from what I know at this point, because this is a very important topic in this country today.

　　If we have a foreign country, which it appears that we do, interfering¹⁵ in an election in any way, we need to know that, and we need to do everything we can to make sure that never happens again.

　　If the bigger questions of collusion or whatever from this administration are true, this country needs to know it and action needs to be taken.

　　It has to be done in a bipartisan way for it to be credible¹⁶ in this country. And Nunes was standing in the way of that because of his actions.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: And, finally, you have worked really closely with Speaker Ryan in the past on a number of difficult legislative¹⁷ issues. How do you think he's doing right now?

　　SEN. PATTY MURRAY: I think he has an incredibly difficult job. I don't envy him his job.

　　But my advice to him would be, do what you have done in the past that helps you be successful. Reach out and find Democrats and find bipartisan solutions to the challenges that you have, and that's how you can get things done.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Senator Patty Murray, thank you very much.

　　SEN. PATTY MURRAY: Thank you.

1 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

2 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

4 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

5 roe   

n.鱼卵；獐鹿

参考例句：

• We will serve smoked cod's roe at the dinner.宴会上我们将上一道熏鳕鱼子。
• I'll scramble some eggs with roe?我用鱼籽炒几个鸡蛋好吗？

6 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

7 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

8 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

9 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

10 filibuster   

n.妨碍议事，阻挠；v.阻挠

参考例句：

• A senator dragged the subject in as a filibuster.一个参议员硬把这个题目拉扯进来，作为一种阻碍议事的手法。
• The democrats organized a filibuster in the senate.民主党党员在参议院上组织了阻挠议事。

11 hurdle   

n.跳栏，栏架；障碍，困难；vi.进行跨栏赛

参考例句：

• The weather will be the biggest hurdle so I have to be ready.天气将会是最大的障碍，所以我必须要作好准备。
• She clocked 11.6 seconds for the 80 metre hurdle.八十米跳栏赛跑她跑了十一秒六。

12 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

13 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

14 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

15 interfering   

adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词

参考例句：

• He's an interfering old busybody! 他老爱管闲事！
• I wish my mother would stop interfering and let me make my own decisions. 我希望我母亲不再干预，让我自己拿主意。

16 credible   

adj.可信任的，可靠的

参考例句：

• The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。
• Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法？

17 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。