Washington – Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, offered an unusual defense Sunday of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, saying Miers’ critics had put together “one of the toughest lynch mobs” he had ever seen.
“What you’ve had here on Harriet Miers is not a rush to judgment. It’s a stampede to judgment,” Specter said on the ABC News program “This Week.”
Miers was being attacked by “one of the toughest lynch mobs ever assembled in Washington, D.C., and we really assemble some tough lynch mobs,” Specter said.
Specter’s remarks amounted to a rebuke of conservatives. And it was tinged with irony: Last year, conservatives delayed his ascension to the helm of the Judiciary Committee, which considers federal judicial nominees before the full Senate votes on confirmation, because they were concerned that he might not be sufficiently steadfast in supporting President Bush’s future Supreme Court choices.
Specter favors abortion rights and has promoted embryonic stem-cell research, positions that have angered many conservatives.
Bush nominated Miers last week to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. The nomination of Miers, Bush’s White House counsel and formerly his personal lawyer in Texas, provoked charges of cronyism, as well as concerns among religious conservatives that she may be too moderate on social issues such as abortion rights.
Specter stopped short of saying whether he would support Miers and expressed concern about her limited experience with issues of constitutional law. As a lawyer in Texas, she mainly focused on business disputes.
Miers’ supporters continued to paint her as a conservative with an open mind who would approach legal problems on a case-by-case basis.
The Senate Republican whip, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, predicted “rock-solid” support for Miers among Senate Republicans.
“I haven’t sensed any discontent of any consequence,” he said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”
Nathan Hecht, a Texas Supreme Court justice and a longtime friend of Miers, said that while Miers had long opposed abortion, she would set aside her personal views when deciding cases.
“Legal issues and personal issues are just two different things,” Hecht said on “Fox News Sunday.”
But Gary Bauer, head of American Values, a conservative advocacy group, and a critic of the nomination, said on the same program that conservatives would be disappointed if that were the case.
“If he wants to reassure his fellow pro- life conservatives, that’s the last argument he should be making,” Bauer said.
Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention said he trusts President Bush.
“He picked a person he’s known for 15 years, and I believe he picked her because … he knows that she will vote the way he would want her to vote,” Land said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
