Washington – The Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to approve the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito as senators turned the occasion into a broader and sometimes heated debate over the rancorous and partisan nature of the confirmation process.
Republicans threatened retaliation against future Democratic nominees, saying that Democrats had rallied party members to vote against Alito’s confirmation for political reasons unrelated to his qualifications. Democrats said a close vote would warn President Bush not to name such conservative judges.
Alito’s confirmation to the Supreme Court by a vote of the full Senate is now all but assured, probably by another vote roughly along party lines, possibly Friday.
Alito won a 10-8 party-line vote from the Senate Judiciary Committee, and five more Republican senators announced they would vote for his confirmation in the full Senate, pushing him beyond 50 votes in the 100-member chamber.
Fifty Senate Republicans, plus Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska, have publicly committed to vote for Alito. There are 55 Republican senators.
Recalling the overwhelming and bipartisan majorities that approved President Clinton’s Supreme Court nominees – Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer – several Republican senators said their party had evaluated the qualifications of nominees in less ideological terms. They said the Democratic opposition to Alito could alter the judicial confirmation process.
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., warned: “So I say to my Democratic friends, think carefully about what is being done today. Its impact will be felt well beyond this particular nominee.”
Democrats countered that the Bush administration had politicized the confirmation process by nominating staunch conservatives to the federal courts.
“It’s a very different day and time” than during Clinton’s nominations, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said. “There was not the polarization within America that is there today and not the defined move to take this court in a singular direction.”
The committee vote, with all 10 Republicans voting to confirm and all eight Democrats voting to reject the nomination, sets the stage for equally contentious if predictable debate beginning today on the Senate floor. Many Democrats have indicated that they are unlikely to seek to block the nomination with a filibuster, virtually guaranteeing Alito’s confirmation.
Democratic leaders are nonetheless pushing for a prolonged debate over the nomination to make their case against Alito as a potential issue in the fall elections. And Democratic aides say privately that they also hope to hold off the final vote until Tuesday, when the president’s State of the Union speech will overshadow the news.
Behind the public arguments about the importance of the courts and the confirmation process, strategists for both parties say they plan to use the Senate vote as a political weapon in the midterm elections. Such elections typically are decided by party loyalists, and such voters most likely would have passionate views on the Alito nomination.
Republicans are laying the groundwork to attack Democrats who vote against Alito as beholden to liberal interest groups.
Democrats plan to make an issue of his votes on subjects like abortion rights and environmental regulations.
Speaking to reporters after the committee vote, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, argued that even if Alito was confirmed, the heavy Democratic opposition should send a message.
“I would hope it sends a message to the president that he should be more careful,” Reid said. “I think it sends a message to the American people that this guy is not King George, he’s President George.”
Still, if Alito joins Chief Justice John Roberts on the bench, Bush’s two nominees will have put a substantial mark on the court. On many social issues, the court has been the biggest obstacle to the goals of conservatives in control of the other branches of government, and Alito would replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who had been the pivotal vote.
After his statement to reporters, Reid met privately with representatives of a coalition of liberal groups opposing Alito, an alliance that includes People for the American Way, the Alliance for Justice, organized labor, abortion rights and environmental groups.
Participants were forbidden to talk to the news media about the meeting, but Democratic aides briefed on it said officials of the groups made a last-ditch plea for the Democrats to stage a filibuster. People present said Reid agreed only that the Democrats would discuss their plans at a party meeting today.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.