Washington – With its conservative base now secure, the White House turned its attention Tuesday to moderates in both parties as it seeks to build a Senate coalition that will confirm Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court despite the aggressive opposition of liberal Democrats.
A day after President Bush nominated him to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Alito made his way across Capitol Hill introducing himself, focusing on Democratic senators representing Republican-leaning states and Republican members of a bipartisan coalition that headed off judicial filibusters this year.
White House strategists assume they will lose at least the 22 Senate Democrats who voted against confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts in September. But they hope to win over enough red-state Democrats to thwart any attempt to block Alito.
If the Republican leadership can hold together its entire 55- member caucus, then it would need five Democrats to break a filibuster and ensure Alito’s confirmation.
At this point, it’s not assured that the Republicans will stick together.
More liberal Senate Republicans who support abortion rights have kept a cautious distance from Alito, and Democrats will try to peel them away from the GOP fold.
Alito, a potent conservative voice on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who was chosen by Bush after conservatives forced the withdrawal of Harriet Miers’ nomination, began his tour of red-state Democrats Tuesday with Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota.
Sean Rushton, executive director of the Committee for Justice, a group set up to support Bush judicial nominations, said such a strategy made sense.
“If Ted Kennedy and Chuck Schumer are the face of the Democratic Party for the next four months,” he said, mentioning prominent liberals from Massachusetts and New York, “I don’t think that’s good for Ben Nelson or Max Baucus or Mark Pryor or other red-state Democrats.”
No Senate Democrat has outright opposed Alito so far, but the caucus has come under great pressure from liberal interest groups that fear he would push the Supreme Court to overturn the Roe vs. Wade decision of 1973 that legalized abortion.
“This weekend, we turned the clocks back one hour to observe standard time,” said Ellen Malcolm, president of Emily’s List, a group financing female candidates who support abortion rights. “Monday morning, President Bush turned the clocks back 32 years with the nomination” of Alito.
Conservative supporters countered with a new television ad calling Alito “one of America’s most respected judges” and a former prosecutor who went after “terrorists and corporate criminals.”
