The Dems strategy on Roberts starts to pay off

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Monday September 26, 2005 · 9:50 AM PDT

2005/09/26 · 09:50

If there's one thing that folks here agreed upon, it's that the real fight would be over the next nominee.

Many cried that division in the Democratic ranks--fueled by the subversive notion that Senators ought to think for themselves--was a sign of selling out and cowardice.

Turns out that Harry Reid & Co. are a bit sharper than folks understood.

To wit, this story from the New York Times.

Now, both socially conservative and more liberal Republican senators say they may vote against confirmation of the next nominee if the pick leans too far to the left or the right on prominent issues like abortion rights.

Any Republican defection could provide cover for Democrats who want to oppose confirmation, protecting them politically in Republican-leaning states. Democrats have vowed to dig in for a tough fight over the nominee to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor because she was a pivotal swing vote on the court.

Say wha? Republicans taking a page out of Leahy and Feingold's book and bucking the demands of the party faithful?

Mr. Chafee said he would apply a more skeptical standard to the next nominee because of the balance of the court and might even oppose a jurist similar to Judge Roberts. "I will be looking very carefully" at the next nominee's views on privacy rights, "separation of church and state," and the scope of federal power, he said.

Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, a Republican who supports abortion rights and has said she will vote to confirm Judge Roberts, took a similar view. She previously voted to confirm some of Mr. Bush's appeals court nominees who met stiff liberal opposition, like Judge Priscilla R. Owen and Judge Janice Rogers Brown, two people said to be on Mr. Bush's shortlist. But Ms. Snowe said she might not support either one for the Supreme Court.

"This is certainly a different level of evaluation," Ms. Snowe said, "especially because of the balance of power on the court."

On the conservative side of the party, Mr. Brownback and Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, another member of the Judiciary Committee, devoted much of their time for questioning Judge Roberts to delivering messages to the White House about the importance of overturning precedents supporting abortion rights.

In an interview last week, Mr. Brownback said he would vote against a nominee who was not "solid and known" on cultural issues like abortion, same-sex marriage and religion in public life."

This, folks, is commonly known as a "pickle." And our dear friend the President is in one.

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