Saad puts 2008 heat on McCain
By Alexander Bolton - THE HILL
Republican leaders in Michigan’s Macomb and Oakland counties are pressuring Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to win an up-or-down vote on a controversial judicial nominee from the Wolverine State.
They want McCain to use his influence to persuade his colleagues to clear Henry Saad, the nominee to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who was left out of the judicial deal Senate centrists struck last month.
Conservative activists are launching a campaign this week to save Saad’s nomination, while Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are hinting that the nominee may not have enough support to pass out of committee.
McCain, the principal GOP architect of the agreement that ensured confirmation votes for several blocked nominees, assured the GOP leaders in Michigan that he would not give up on Saad, GOP officials said in interviews.
These Republicans said that if McCain doesn’t follow up on his pledge he will alienate potential GOP support in two counties considered the “lynchpin” to a 2008 presidential political victory in Michigan because they are “swing” counties, home to large numbers of centrist voters. Macomb and Oakland counties are regular destinations for state-wide candidates and candidates with presidential ambitions.
McCain discussed his commitment to Saad’s nomination at a Lincoln Day dinner in Macomb on June 6.
“He made it very clear that this was not going to be something that he was going to give up on,” said Jim Carabelli, chairman of the Macomb County Republican Party. “That’s the way we took it as the Macomb County Republicans. We expect McCain to do what he said he would do.”
Asked whether he interpreted that to mean that McCain would allow the so-called “nuclear option” to proceed if Democrats filibustered Saad, Carabelli said, “I believe that.”
McCain marshaled a group of Republican centrists last month to deprive Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) enough votes to execute the controversial tactic, which would have changed Senate procedure to prohibit filibusters of judicial nominees. In the agreement, Democrats pledged not to filibuster judicial nominees except in “extraordinary circumstances,” a vague term that Republican signatories would have to interpret to determine whether Democratic action would shatter the deal.
Carabelli said, “I think that he would possibly pay a price for not standing up,” predicting the political fallout in a Republican presidential primary in 2008. McCain won an important victory over President Bush in Michigan in 2000, and the state could be scheduled or early in the 2008 Republican Party.
Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virgina, said Michigan is crucial to McCain in 2008.
“If he doesn’t win it handily again it could be portrayed as the death knell of his candidacy,” he said.
“Quite a few people are concerned about Judge Saad’s status,” said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, former majority floor leader of the Michigan state senate and chair of Bush’s 2000 and 2004 Michigan law enforcement coalition. “That was expressed very clearly to Senator McCain.”
“I talked to some people in the party and they said that he was very much told about the feelings and he said he would do all he could to get a vote on Judge Saad,” he said. “If someone talks the talk and doesn’t do the walk it’s going to be very telling and is going to correlate directly to interest or lack of interest in their candidacy.”
Bouchard said that McCain was approached about Saad at the Macomb County event and at events in Oakland County.
Bill Ballenger, the publisher of Inside Michigan Politics, said Bouchard is “arguably the most popular countywide elected official in Oakland [County].”
“Oakland and Macomb are huge” in their importance to candidates running statewide in Michigan, Ballenger said. “They’re the second and third biggest counties in the state,” he said, adding that “they’ve been swing counties in Senate and gubernatorial races in the last decade or decade and a half.”
Ballenger said it was unreasonable for state officials to hold McCain accountable for Saads nomination: It makes sense only if they don’t like McCain.”
In an interview, McCain told The Hill, “I remember that Saad came up” during his trip to Michigan.
When local officials approached him about Saad, McCain pushed back.
”I said, ‘You just sold out the largest fundraiser in Macomb County,’” McCain recalled, referring to the event at which he was the star attraction.
“Not one person came up to me and asked me about Saad,” McCain said, indicating that while the issue may have been a concern of GOP officials it was not raised by any of the other guests at the fundraiser.
McCain added: “I said I’ll do whatever I can to get him an up-or-down vote. I’m not going to break the agreement.”
Meanwhile, conservative leaders in Washington and around the country are launching a concerted effort to save Saad’s nomination.
Nearly 100 conservative leaders, including Paul Weyrich of Coalitions for America, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Gary Bauer, of American Values, have signed a letter to Senate Republican leaders urging Saad’s confirmation.
“We urge you to test the ‘Deal’ and ready yourself to end judicial filibusters as soon as possible,” the leaders urged in the letter, which is being circulated by Manuel Miranda, chairman of the Third Branch Conference, a coalition of conservative groups active in the judiciary battle. “We also write to express our support for the confirmation of Henry Saad of Michigan.”"
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