New York Times
May 08, 2006
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
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WASHINGTON, May 7 - Republicans are itching for a good election-year fight. Now they are about to get one: a reprise of last year's Senate showdown over judges.
It has been a year since a bipartisan group of 14 senators, the Gang of 14, reached a compromise that smoothed the way for confirmation of President Bush's judicial nominees, including two Supreme Court justices. Conservatives, eager to stir some enthusiasm among their base in an otherwise gloomy election year, have spent months prodding the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, to take up candidates left out of that deal.
Mr. Frist, of Tennessee, is doing just that. On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the confirmation of Brett M. Kavanaugh, a White House aide, whose nomination to a federal appeals court has been stalled for three years. Mr. Frist has promised a vote on Mr. Kavanaugh this month. Conservatives are also pushing for a vote on an even more contentious nominee, Judge Terrence W. Boyle, a longtime federal district judge in North Carolina.
With Democrats promising to question Mr. Kavanaugh extensively and threatening to block Judge Boyle by filibuster, Republicans say they could not be happier.
"A good fight on judges does nothing but energize our base," said Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, who made judicial nominations a theme of his 2004 campaign against Tom Daschle, the former Democratic leader. "Right now our folks are feeling a little flat. They need a reason to get engaged, and fights over judges will do that."
Another conservative Republican, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, said: "I think this is excellent timing. From a political standpoint, when we talk about judges, we win."
Conservative commentators and advocates have spent months arguing that very point. Sean Rushton, executive director of the Committee for Justice, which advocates for the confirmation of Mr. Bush's judicial nominees, said his group and other conservative organizations had been pushing Mr. Frist to reopen the issue since Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. was confirmed to the Supreme Court in January.
With Republicans divided over issues like immigration and federal spending, Mr. Rushton said a revival of the long-running clash over judges could provide a unifying theme. It could swing independent votes, he said, in the close-fought re-election campaigns of Republicans like Senators Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Mike DeWine of Ohio, and in races like the one in Michigan, where Republicans are trying to unseat a Democratic incumbent, Senator Debbie Stabenow.
"I would argue that it's more than a base issue," Mr. Rushton said. "It's an issue that reminds people that while they may not love Republicans, they can't trust Democrats."
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