Graham, DeMint may differ on high court nominees

e-mail this story Dan Hoover • Graham, DeMint may differ on high court nominees (11/14/04) • Elite few both give and bundle (10/24/04) • Sanford-Legislature disconnect still looms (10/17/04) • Web chats fuel draft speculation (10/10/04) • Sales tax issue hurts DeMint's campaign (10/02/04)

Both Republicans describe themselves as "pro-life."

Each says he favors the nomination of conservative, strict constructionists to the federal judiciary at all levels.

Then, nuances shade things a tad, but only that. And maybe none at all, given the differences in politicalspeak from lawyer Graham and marketer DeMint.

For DeMint, and Graham, the soon-to-be-minted senior senator, the issue may see an early move from the distantly theoretical to the demonstrably practical given the failing health of Chief Justice William Rehnquist and the advancing age and health concerns of two or three associate justices.

In the final week of the campaign, while traveling around the state in a luxury bus, the current and future senators never failed to mention that more GOP senators would improve the odds of winning confirmation for conservative district and appellate court judges, and, eventually, for the high court. This time?

Despite predictions that Bush might face one or more Supreme Court vacancies in his first term, none materialized. It seems likely that time and human frailties won't bypass his second.

But the day before the election, the question took on new urgency when Rehnquist, who days earlier disclosed he is being treated for thyroid cancer, failed to show up for the court's fall session.

He'll have no litmus test on abortion, such as defeated Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry established by committing himself to demonstrated abortion rights nominees, Graham said.

Instead, his goal is to look at Bush's nominee and "put abortion in perspective in terms of how you judge somebody, not disqualify because they happen to be pro-choice, but make sure whatever the issue is, they don't bring a personal agenda."

He wouldn't bar a pro-choicer "who promises to follow the law as written."

Graham's other criteria:

"Someone well-qualified in terms of judicial disposition, that is, who can make an unpopular decision based on sound legal reasoning, and experience level. (A nominee) who has a track record of viewing the law from a judge's, or lawyer's, perspective as something to be interpreted, not something to be manipulated to perform an elected official's job."

DeMint, too, says he has no litmus tests, beyond a nominee being "a strict constructionist who's demonstrated that he doesn't make decisions just based on evolving precedent as much as interpreting the law.

"I don't think many judges who are going to be nominated are among those who've been out front one way or another, but if that happens, obviously it would give me heartburn if somebody is openly pro-abortion," he said.

Does that mean Mr. DeMint votes no?

"It could be very likely."

Specter factor

Both conservative senators will have to deal with an abortion rights Republican who is the likely incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the panel that vets judicial nominees.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter roiled post-election jubilation over the GOP's four-seat net gain with comments that appeared aimed at letting the White House know he wouldn't look favorably on anti-abortion nominees.

He has since gone into a "this-is-what-I-meant" mode, saying he was noting that nominees who oppose abortion rights are likely to fail to be confirmed because the GOP lacks the 60 votes needed to break a Democratic filibuster.

A wary DeMint said he has "a lot of heartburn about him being chairman, but I want to give him a fair chance of explaining what his philosophy really is and talk to him about it."

Graham said he did just that on Tuesday and came away close to being satisfied.

"I think he's put in perspective what he meant," Graham said. "His past behavior on the committee has been very good when it came to supporting the president."

They'll meet Monday in Washington.

"We'll have a healthy conversation about how he views his role as chairman, put these comments in perspective and move on, I hope."

Specter is the last of a vanishing breed, a Northern Republican just to the left of moderate.

"He's certainly not on the conservative side of things most times," DeMint said, adding that the Pennsylvanian is among the last in a line once populated by the Rockefellers and Javitses, long-deceased center-left New York Republicans, "and it's important that we treat him with respect."

Bush went out of his way to save Specter in the spring primary, DeMint said, "so if the president feels he can live with Specter, probably the rest of us should feel comfortable with him."

'The ideal model'

Graham says he knows the type of person, with emphasis on the type, he wants to fill the next Supreme Court vacancy, a jurist who can follow the law and set his personal feelings aside.

"In our own back yard, we have the ideal model for a Supreme Court justice in Billy Wilkins," he said of Greenville's William Wilkins of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. "That's the kind of person I'm looking for."

As the state's senior senator from the party in power, would he head to the White House, recommendation in hand, upon a vacancy?

"I just point to him as a model of somebody who could serve us all well, a seasoned, experienced judge who understands the limits of being a judge," Graham said.

Also ...

To the winners may go the spoils, but after President Bush's re-election, his state campaign chairman put out the word that he's not interested in any.

House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, who's also the judge's brother, discovering that some of his troops showed signs of jockeying for an opening that isn't going to be there, did a "read my lips" routine for the GOP caucus:

"No vacancy." Dan Hoover's column appears on Sunday. He can be reached at 298-4883 or toll-free at (800) 274-7879, extension 4883, and by fax at (864) 298-4395.