[Mb-civic] Senate Panel Endorses Roberts - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Senate Panel Endorses Roberts
Democrats Vow to Fight Next Nominee

By Charles Babington and Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, September 23, 2005; Page A01

Chief Justice nominee John G. Roberts Jr. won the Senate Judiciary 
Committee's endorsement yesterday with unanimous Republican support and 
the backing of three Democrats who said they hope he will keep his 
promise not to be an ideologue.

The 13 to 5 vote reflected Roberts's praised performance at last week's 
hearing and the Democrats' inability or unwillingness to mount a united 
campaign against him. While Republicans and Democrats agreed President 
Bush's next Supreme Court nomination will be far more contentious, 
liberal activists clearly saw yesterday's vote for the conservative 
Roberts as a blow to their effort to maintain a voice in shaping the 
judiciary.

Roberts, 50, would replace the late William H. Rehnquist, a reliable 
conservative vote on the high court. Perhaps as early as next week, Bush 
will nominate a replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a 
centrist. Her successor could play a major role in pushing the court to 
the left or right.

The soothing tones and anticlimactic windup of Roberts's confirmation 
are unlikely to be repeated in the looming battle to replace O'Connor, 
an array of lawmakers and activists said. "It's Armageddon," said Sen. 
Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a Judiciary Committee member who strongly 
backed Roberts.

The full Senate plans to vote on Roberts's nomination next week, when he 
is all but assured of being confirmed as the nation's 17th chief 
justice. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Roberts "is going to 
make an outstanding chief justice."

The three committee Democrats who voted for Roberts -- Russell Feingold 
and Herbert Kohl of Wisconsin and Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont -- have 
liberal voting records, and their votes dismayed many groups important 
to the party's base. A number of Democratic senators from 
Republican-leaning states have said they will support Roberts next week, 
leaving their party split almost down the middle on the first Supreme 
Court opening in 11 years. "I will vote my hopes today and not my 
fears," Kohl said.

With the committee vote over, other Democrats began to line up for and 
against Roberts. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), announced yesterday that 
she will vote no on the nomination, as did Barack Obama (Ill.). Robert 
Byrd (W.Va.) and Mark Pryor (Ark.) said they will vote to approve Roberts.

"Today was a defeat, there's no question about that," said Ralph G. Neas 
of the liberal People for the American Way.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/22/AR2005092200796.html?referrer=email
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