Frist: Specter Must Back President's Judicial Nominees
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist withholds endorsement of Sen. Arlen Specter for Senate Judiciary Commitee chairmanship and says Specter has yet to make his case.
Sen. Arlen Specter, who has been facing opposition from conservatives to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee, still must persuade his colleagues and the current Judiciary panel that he is fit for the post, said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to Chris Wallace on “Fox Sunday News.”
Frist withheld his endorsement of Specter and called “disheartening” the remarks made by the Penn. Senator following the election. Specter made comments, during a Nov. 3 news conference, suggesting pro-life judicial nominees would have a hard time getting a vote or approval in the Senate.
First said he expected the chairman of the Committee to be “responsible to the feelings, the wishes, the beliefs, the values, the procedures that are held by the majority of that committee. That is, in this case, the Republican caucus on that committee, the Republican committee members.”
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Additionally, the chairman, explained Frist, should not only “have a strong predisposition to supporting that nominee sent over by President Bush… to a Republican Judiciary Committee,” but also “on the floor of the United States Senate.”
Frist said the chairman also has the duty to ensure every one of the President's judicial nominees receive an up-or-down vote. He discussed the possiblity of the "nuclear option," which would prevent filibusters by only requiring a majority vote of 51 to pass a judicial nominee.
Specter is next in line to head the Committee due to Senate rules of seniority. Sen. Orrin Hatch, the current chairman of the Committee, is stepping down to the party’s six-year term limit.
The issue is important because there may be as many as four vacancies in the U.S. Supreme Court during Bush’s second term. Chief Justice William Rehnquist has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and three justices have had cancer. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee will have considerable power in the confirmation process for any judicial nominees to the nation’s High Court.
Over the past week and a half, Specter has made several attempts to reassure his fellow Republicans and Republican committee leaders that if he were selected to take up the Judiciary post, he would not apply a litmus test to the president’s judicial nominees and would support them even if they opposed the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
However, Specter’s comments have not swayed the opinions of conservatives and pro-family groups who have surged a grassroots initiative to oppose his appointment as Judiciary chairman. As a result, people have been flooding Senate offices with calls to voice their dissent.
Conservative groups opposing Specter include: Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, and American Family Association. Many also retained bitter sentiment over Specter for rejecting Richard Bork, a conservative judicial nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1987.
Specter will meet with the Senate leadership over the next week, according to Frist. “He'll then meet with members of the existing Judiciary Committee to explain both what he meant and what he would do as chairman. And then ultimately the members of that committee will choose whether or not he serves as their chairman.”
But the Judiciary Committee, noted Frist, for the next Congress has not been chosen yet. “They select the chairman. That chairman is taken to the entire conference, 55 Republicans, and they make an ultimate decision on that.”
A pro-life group is holding a rally Monday to protest Specter’s chairmanship. On Tuesday, Christian Defense Coalition, along with other organizations, is launching a two-month campaign to ask for the Republican leadership to reject Specter. The event will begin at 1 p.m. outside the office of Majority Leader First at the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, said, "We want the Republican leadership to clearly understand the appointment of Senator Specter, as chair of the Judiciary Committee, would be a slap in the face to the millions of pro-life/pro-family Americans who helped elect the President and give the Republicans a majority in the House and Senate.”
