Carolyn Lochhead: Bush, Dems Hope To Gain From Roberts Hearings
When John Roberts takes his seat today in a historic Senate hearing room, it will be to win confirmation as the 17th chief justice of the United States -- to replace his former mentor who died nine days ago -- rather than as a junior associate justice to fill the seat of retiring centrist Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
The Democrats the 50-year-old nominee faces on the Senate Judiciary Committee will be freshly energized, not just to grill him, but to bend the White House to their will on a second Supreme Court vacancy now newly open.
And the Republican president who nominated him has seen his political strength sapped by a violent hurricane that may leave Roberts as his best hope for a second-term legacy.
The odds in Washington are high that Roberts, an appellate court judge, will be confirmed, given his sterling legal credentials, soothing personality and shortage of political bombshells from his past. With Republicans holding a comfortable 55 seats in the 100-member Senate, nothing short of a filibuster that would wreak havoc in the body can stop him.
But history proves that televised Senate confirmation hearings can take on a life of their own.
Fourteen years ago, Justice Clarence Thomas, nominated by President Bush's father, entered the same ornate room in the Russell Building heavily favored to win an easy confirmation.
Thomas emerged declaring the hearings a "high-tech lynching" after Anita Hill alleged sexual harassment, and he narrowly won confirmation, his reputation scarred.
Former President Ronald Reagan's nominee Judge Douglas Ginsburg withdrew after admitting to smoking pot in college.
"This is very much an on-the-spot performance, and that makes it very dynamic," said Julian Zelizer, a political historian at Boston University. "Things come up as the questions are being asked, as the news is really focusing in on him and how he appears on television, how he responds, how he interacts with the legislators."s been his bread and butter."
The Democrats the 50-year-old nominee faces on the Senate Judiciary Committee will be freshly energized, not just to grill him, but to bend the White House to their will on a second Supreme Court vacancy now newly open.
And the Republican president who nominated him has seen his political strength sapped by a violent hurricane that may leave Roberts as his best hope for a second-term legacy.
The odds in Washington are high that Roberts, an appellate court judge, will be confirmed, given his sterling legal credentials, soothing personality and shortage of political bombshells from his past. With Republicans holding a comfortable 55 seats in the 100-member Senate, nothing short of a filibuster that would wreak havoc in the body can stop him.
But history proves that televised Senate confirmation hearings can take on a life of their own.
Fourteen years ago, Justice Clarence Thomas, nominated by President Bush's father, entered the same ornate room in the Russell Building heavily favored to win an easy confirmation.
Thomas emerged declaring the hearings a "high-tech lynching" after Anita Hill alleged sexual harassment, and he narrowly won confirmation, his reputation scarred.
Former President Ronald Reagan's nominee Judge Douglas Ginsburg withdrew after admitting to smoking pot in college.
"This is very much an on-the-spot performance, and that makes it very dynamic," said Julian Zelizer, a political historian at Boston University. "Things come up as the questions are being asked, as the news is really focusing in on him and how he appears on television, how he responds, how he interacts with the legislators."s been his bread and butter."