Roberts Threads The Needle

[NATO AIR]

What jag-offs these dem senators are... completely unprofessional....

http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200509140900.asp

Whatever its name, the Effect refers to what happens to conservatives' perceptions of a judicial nominee whenever he is questioned by the more assertive Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee. For Roberts, it began when Sen. Edward Kennedy told him, right off the bat, that "The stark and tragic images of human suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have reminded us yet again that civil rights and equal rights are still the great unfinished business of America." From Katrina, Kennedy moved to Brown v. Board of Education ("the most important civil-rights decision in our lifetime," said the 72-year-old senator, before conceding that it had in fact been decided before Roberts was born) to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Kennedy's destination was the extension of the Voting Rights Act in 1982, which happened when Roberts was a young aide in the Reagan Justice Department. Referring to memos Roberts wrote at the time, Kennedy said, "I'm deeply troubled by a narrow and cramped and perhaps even a mean-spirited view of the law that appears in some of your writings." When Roberts attempted to explain himself, Kennedy seemed determined to keep talking. That led Specter to step in, and in the next few minutes the hearing transcript was filled with the following statements from the chairman:

"Let him finish his answer."

"Let him finish his answer, Senator Kennedy."

"Let him finish his answer, Senator Kennedy."

"Let him finish his answer. That was quite a long question."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute...Now, let him answer the question."

With each interruption, Roberts's conservative dial-o'-meter rating went straight up. And it shot off the scale when the next Democrat to question Roberts, Sen. Joseph Biden, made Kennedy seem positively patient and kind.

"I said yesterday this shouldn't be a game of Gotcha," Biden told Roberts at the beginning, shortly before engaging the nominee in a lengthy game of Gotcha. And the remarkable thing was, Biden actually got Roberts on one point, when he questioned Roberts about the so-called Ginsburg Rule, that is, the time-honored practice of nominees' not answering questions about issues that might come before the Court. Biden made it clear that Roberts was not strictly following the "no hints, no forecasts, no previews" precedent of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg that has often been cited by his supporters, but rather using it to answer some questions and not answer others. By the end of the exchange, Roberts was reduced to saying, "Senator, I think nominees have to draw the line where they're comfortable."

It might have been an effective moment for Democrats, had not Biden succumbed, as he almost always does, to the apparently irresistible temptation to grandstand. Playing to the crowd, Biden interrupted Roberts more than Kennedy had, leading Specter to again intervene:

"Let him finish his answer, Joe."

"Senator Biden, let him finish."

"Senator Biden, let him finish his answer."

"Wait a minute, Senator Biden. He's not finished his answer."

"Now, wait a minute. Let him finish his answer, Senator Biden."

At one point, Biden protested, "He's filibustering, Senator," Biden said, getting a good laugh. "No, he's not," Specter replied. "No, he's not." At another point, Biden exclaimed, "His answers are misleading!" before adding, "With all due respect."

"Now, wait a minute, wait a minute," Specter answered, clearly becoming impatient. "They may be misleading, but they are his answers."

"O.K., fine," Biden said.

"You may finish, Judge Roberts," Specter said.

"Fire away," said Biden. "Fire away."

"With respect, they are my answers," Roberts said. "And, with respect, they're not misleading. They are accurate."
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