Senate GOP Moves Toward Alito Confirmation
Friday, January 27, 2006
WASHINGTON — Despite the small threat of a Democratic-led filibuster, the Senate could approve Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court as early as next Tuesday.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has called for a Monday cloture vote that would end debate on the nomination and set the stage for final vote Tuesday. With 60 or more votes in favor of cloture — which Republicans believe they have — the threat of a filibuster by some Democrats would be quashed. Whereas it takes a simple majority of the Senate to confirm a nominee, it takes 60 votes to end a filibuster mounted to delay a vote.
"Next Tuesday, a bipartisan majority will vote to confirm Judge Alito as Justice Alito," said Frist of Tennessee.
Alito's confirmation has become a political battle as well as a judicial one, with top Democrats like Massachusetts Sens. Ted Kennedy and John Kerry calling Thursday for a filibuster. Democrats have said that by, replacing Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Alito would dangerously shift the ideals of the court too far to the right, away from the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade that is the underpinning for legal abortion, and too much in favor of a strong executive branch, among other complaints.
"The president has every right to nominate Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court," Kerry said. "It's our right and our responsibility to oppose him vigorously and to fight against this radical upending of the Supreme Court."
White House spokesman Scott McClellan on Friday called Kerry's threat "the first-ever call for a filibuster from the slopes of Davos, Switzerland," referring to the location of the World Economic Forum that Kerry was attending.
Around midday Friday, Senate Democrats said Kerry and Kennedy do not have enough votes to deny an up or down vote. In order to successfully "extend debate," or filibuster the nomination, they must round up at least 41 votes. At least 10 Democrats are opposed to a filibuster.
"I do not think a filibuster will be successful," Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota said after announcing his intention to vote against the filibuster effort. "A filibuster is not going to be sustained."
At least 65 Senators are expected to vote to end debate and move on to Tuesday's confirmation vote; that's five more votes than the minimum needed for cloture.
Republicans have steadily called for an up-or-down vote to send the nomination to the full Senate without a filibuster. The Republicans appear to stand on solid ground, with none of the 55 Republican senators publicly opposing Alito, and at least three Democrats — Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Ben Nelson of Nebraska — voicing support. On Friday, Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said he was leaning toward voting for Alito.
"It is clear to me that a majority of the American people and the people I represent support his confirmation," Conrad said after meeting with Alito in his office.
Alito, 55, has testified for 18 hours and answered more than 700 questions in a weeklong hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He currently sits on 3rd U.S Circuit Court of Appeals. The Tuesday-morning final vote would be only hours before President Bush's State of the Union address.
Bush has repeatedly called on the Senate to confirm his nominee.
Alito "understands the role of a judge is not to advance a personal and political agenda," the president said Thursday at the White House. "He is a decent man. He's got a lot of experience and he deserves an up-or-down vote in the Senate."
'There's Some Division in Our Caucus'
If Kennedy and Kerry's efforts to filibuster Alito's nomination succeed, that would essentially kill the nomination. But as of Friday, there seemed little guarantee that the senators' efforts would succeed.
While they were counting Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., as supporters of a filibuster, others have stayed quiet, including Judiciary Commitee top Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Charles Schumer of New York.
Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Joe Biden of Delaware, Ken Salazar of Colorado and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota — as well as GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine — made it clear after a second day of floor debate on Alito that they would not support a filibuster, even though Akaka and Salazar oppose Alito and the others are undecided.
"There's some division in our caucus," Kennedy conceded. "It's an uphill climb at the current time, but it's achievable."
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada earlier offered little support for a filibuster, saying there had been enough time to debate the nomination, adding, "no one can complain on this matter that there hasn't been sufficient time to talk about Judge Alito, pro or con."
But he seemed to change his tune on Friday.
Reid, who said Alito was a "bad choice," said he would sustain a filibuster should an opportunity come around.
"We're going to have a vote Tuesday morning," Reid said during a U.S. Conference of Mayors event. "Everyone knows there are not enough votes to support a filibuster, but it's an opportunity to people to express their opinion on what a bad choice it was to replace Sandra Day O'Connor."
Reid also said Alito was a "bad choice" and that the president should have taken into more account First Lade Laura Bush's idea to nominate a woman to replace O'Connor.
Republicans immediately began criticizing Democrats for even considering a filibuster.
"Harry Reid's position on Judge Alito's confirmation has more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese," said Republican National Committee spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt. "After stating an unwillingness to support a filibuster, it looks as though the Davos Democrats were able to twist Reid's arm enough to switch him from 'filibuster ... not me,' to 'filibuster ... oui, oui.'"
"Continuing to threaten a filibuster, even after it is crystal clear that Democrats don't have the necessary votes to sustain their obstruction, is needless, strange and at odds with many of their fellow Democrats," added Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas
Nevertheless, the vote for Alito could be tight. Comparatively, in last fall's vote for Chief Justice John Roberts, 22 Democrats voted against Roberts, and in 1991, Justice Clarence Thomas was confirmed in a 52-48 vote.
FOX News' Molly Hooper and Greg Kelly and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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