Washington – The group of maverick Democrats and Republicans who reached a truce in partisan warfare over judicial nominations earlier this year decided Thursday that President Bush’s nomination of John G. Roberts Jr. to the Supreme Court is not “extraordinary” enough to break that peace.
At their first meeting since Bush picked the appellate-court judge to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the so-called Gang of 14 decided that they are not prepared to filibuster him – at least, based on what is known about the nominee so far.
“There’s no indications so far that there will be a filibuster, and I think that was the consensus in the meeting,” said Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio. “But I think people are reserving the right to see what comes out of the (Judiciary Committee) hearings.”
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., who remains steadfastly neutral on Roberts’ nomination, said many in the group felt they moderated Bush’s choice.
“We talked about how the efforts of the Gang of 14 might have prevented the president from nominating someone who was an extremist,” Salazar said.
Salazar said none of the Democrats have ruled out declaring that “extraordinary circumstances” exist, which would allow a senator to opt out of the agreement and filibuster a nominee.
“It has not been ruled out,” Salazar said. “I expressed that it was important not to have any prejudgment. The discussion had more to do with how this was just the beginning of the process.”
He said the 14 agreed to meet again if the nomination process hits a snag.
The seven Democrats and seven Republicans in the “gang” represent enough votes to prevent Democrats from mustering the 41 votes they would need to sustain a filibuster. As a group, they also could thwart Republican efforts to change the rules for filibusters.
At the time of the judicial showdown in May, the 14 decided that their agreement on filibusters could be broken only by “extraordinary circumstances” – a term they deliberately did not define.
Denver Post staff writer Mike Soraghan contributed to this report.
