[Mb-civic] Specter to Press Miers in Hearings - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Specter to Press Miers in Hearings
Judiciary Panel Leader Says Nominee Has Not Yet Been Heard

By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 10, 2005; Page A05

Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers will get a thorough vetting by the 
Senate Judiciary Committee, the panel's chairman said yesterday, adding 
that critics of President Bush's pick have pilloried the nomination 
before giving Miers a chance to be heard.

"What you've had here . . . is not a rush to judgment -- it's a stampede 
to judgment," said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) on ABC's "This Week." 
"She's faced one of the toughest lynch mobs ever assembled in 
Washington, D.C., and we really assemble some tough lynch mobs."

The nomination of Miers, 60, the White House counsel and a longtime 
associate of Bush, has been condemned by some conservatives who bemoan 
her lack of a judicial track record and say she is hardly the most 
qualified person for the seat being vacated by retiring Justice Sandra 
Day O'Connor. Miers was a corporate lawyer and has never served as a judge.

Specter said he would press Miers "very hard" on her approach to legal 
issues such as whether the Roe v. Wade abortion decision is settled law, 
and on whether she has privately given anyone assurances on how she 
would vote on the bench. He will even ask to see her law school 
transcript from Southern Methodist University because "academic standing 
is relevant," he said.

Specter and Vermont Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, the committee's ranking 
Democrat, said they intend to follow up on a comment by Focus on the 
Family founder and chairman James C. Dobson that, based on conversations 
with White House adviser Karl Rove, he believes she opposes abortion and 
would be a good justice.

"This is a lifetime appointment," Specter said. "If there are backroom 
assurances and there are backroom deals, and if there is something which 
bears upon a precondition as to how a nominee is going to vote, I think 
that's a matter that ought to be known by the Judiciary Committee and 
the American people."

Leahy said he would oppose any nominee who gives assurances about how he 
or she would vote on particular cases. "I would vote against that 
person," he said. "I wouldn't care whether they are nominated by a 
Democrat or a Republican. . . . And all 100 senators should vote against 
them under that basis alone."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/09/AR2005100901018.html
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