[Mb-civic] Roberts Unlikely To Face Big Fight - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

<>Roberts Unlikely To Face Big Fight
Many Democrats See Battle as Futile

By Mike Allen and Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, August 16, 2005; Page A01

Democrats have decided that unless there is an unexpected development in 
the weeks ahead, they will not launch a major fight to block the Supreme 
Court nomination of John G. Roberts Jr., according to legislators, 
Senate aides and party strategists.

In a series of interviews in recent days, more than a dozen Democratic 
senators and aides who are intimately involved in deliberations about 
strategy said that they see no evidence that most Democratic senators 
are prepared to expend political capital in what is widely seen as a 
futile effort to derail the nomination.

Although they expect to subject President Bush's nominee to tough 
questioning at confirmation hearings next month, members of the minority 
party said they do not plan to marshal any concerted campaign against 
Roberts because they have concluded that he is likely to get at least 70 
votes -- enough to overrule parliamentary tactics such as a filibuster 
that could block the nominee.

"No one's planning all-out warfare," said a Senate Democratic aide 
closely involved in caucus strategy on Roberts. For now, the aide said, 
Democratic strategy is to make it clear Roberts is subject to fair 
scrutiny while avoiding a pointless conflagration that could backfire on 
the party. "We're going to come out of this looking dignified and will 
show we took the constitutional process seriously," the aide said.

"This was a smart political choice from the White House," said one 
prominent Democratic lawmaker, who like several others interviewed for 
this article requested anonymity because they were departing from the 
Democrats' public position. "I don't think people see a close vote here."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/15/AR2005081501433.html

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