Bush's pick meets measured reaction

If first public impressions are crucial after the announcement of a Supreme Court nomination, then President Bush may have done himself - and potentially even his foes in Congress - a favor.

Out of the block, no one argued that nominee John Roberts lacks the kind of résumé that would qualify him for the highest court in the land: a top student at Harvard University, clerk for Chief Justice William Rehnquist, deputy solicitor general under the first President Bush, successful private lawyer, and, for two years, a federal appeals court judge.

In contrast with the instantly contentious confirmation process of Robert Bork in 1987, in which he was ultimately rejected, the first reaction from key Democrats to Judge Roberts's nomination Tuesday night was measured. Those on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the first body Roberts will face, praised his career, temperament, and intellect - while promising tough questions that seek to draw out specific views on hot-button issues. But there was no effort to affix rhetorical horns on his head, as happened to Judge Bork.

Indeed, in this period of highly partisan polarization, a confirmation process for Roberts that falls short of World War III could help improve the image of political Washington in the eyes of the public, analysts say.

"The nomination of John Roberts will have a calming influence in Washington, and it is long overdue," says Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. "The simple fact that the president did not reach deep into the bag of most outspokenly conservative judges is a sign that he wants to moderate the discourse."

Still, no one expects the confirmation hearings to be easy, especially as both parties' activist wings whip up their ground troops and spend record sums on media and other outreach.

If nothing else, the coming battle should prove a fundraising bonanza for the interest groups. For years before July 1, when Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement, interest groups have been spoiling for the next Supreme Court vacancy - the first since 1994.

The issues in play are central: abortion and other privacy rights, affirmative action, church-state separation, states' rights vs. federal power, the environment, property rights. When Roberts's name leaked out early Tuesday evening, activists from both sides pushed the button on e-mails aimed at framing the debate.

As they have done for weeks, conservative groups sought to preempt the expected liberal argument that Bush's nominee is an "extremist" who will threaten Americans' rights.

When Bush announced Roberts, liberal groups expressed alarm and disappointment over the pick. Though Roberts has a slim public record, feminist and civil liberties group instantly highlighted a 1990 brief that said, "We continue to believe that Roe was wrongly decided and should be overruled," a reference to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that established a national right to abortion.

Legal analysts point out that Roberts was writing on behalf of the first Bush administration, and not necessarily laying out his own views. Efforts to get at Roberts's approach to abortion rights will figure prominently in confirmation hearings, but it is doubtful he will fully answer the question or satisfy critics.

Page: 1 | 2