Right Urges Showdown With Democrats Over Judicial Nominees

By Michael A. Fletcher
Monday, July 23, 2007

Even as President Bush last week named four candidates to fill long-standing vacancies on federal appeals courts, conservative legal activists were spoiling for a fight over what they call the unfair treatment of the president's judicial nominees.

So far, the new names have not raised the hackles of the liberal advocacy groups closely monitoring Bush's nominees. But there is substantial opposition to several other nominees, including Leslie H. Southwick, formerly a judge on the Mississippi Court of Appeals, and Harris County, Tex., trial Judge Jennifer W. Elrod, both candidates for seats on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

"Leslie Southwick's confirmation would be a slap in the face to African Americans and people of goodwill. His views on workplace discrimination are, at best, questionable and at worst, indifferent to the dignity of minority workers," said Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Council on Civil Rights.

Meanwhile, Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice, labeled Elrod, 41, "not ready to be confirmed" after her hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.

Before Bush named his latest batch of nominees -- Shalom D. Stone for a seat on the 3rd Circuit, Robert J. Conrad Jr. to the 4th Circuit, Catharina Haynes to the 5th Circuit and John Daniel Tinder to the 7th Circuit -- he had selected candidates for only five of the 15 circuit court vacancies. Some conservative legal activists were worried that the president was squandering an opportunity to build on a record that includes appointing two Supreme Court justices and about 30 percent of the nation's active appeals court judges.

But now conservative activists are incensed at the opposition and are urging Senate Republicans to retaliate -- perhaps by blocking Democratic legislation and effectively grinding business to a halt in the Senate -- if there is no action on the stalled appeals court candidates.

"There's a battle heating up," said Curt Levey, director of the Committee for Justice, a group that supports conservative judicial nominees. "Something's going to happen before the August recess."

The brewing confrontation could reignite the bitter partisan battles that preceded the president's two Supreme Court appointments in 2005.

Republicans "seem to love to shut down the government and seem intent on manufacturing excuses to do so," said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Leahy defended his committee's record for confirming judges. "Already this year, we have proceeded to confirm more judges than were confirmed in all of 2005, when Republicans ran the Senate."

The Snow Show

White House press secretary Tony Snow seems to be taking matters into his own hands as senators from both parties warn that they are losing patience while waiting for signs of progress in Iraq. There is substantial success on the ground, Snow argues, and lately he has made that case at news briefings with charts and other visuals -- and the kind of military detail normally heard at the Pentagon.

"In the months of May and June, there were kills or captures of a number of senior al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders," Snow told reporters on Wednesday. "That would include 11 local al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders, seven facilitators, five cell leaders and three vehicle-borne IED network leaders."

On Friday, Snow offered White House scribes details on Operation Phantom Thunder, which is what the military is calling the recent troop increase in Iraq. "Coalition forces have found, cleared or dismantled nearly 600 weapons caches, more than 1,300 IEDs, more than 25 vehicle-borne IEDs and eight factories for building IEDs -- again, since June 15th," Snow assured reporters.

Snow's Pentagon-style briefings came as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker and other administration officials said it will take some time to measure the results of the troop increase, although many in Congress want results soon.

"What we're doing is mounting a campaign for people actually to find out what's going on, on the ground," Snow said. "Quite often, the only narrative they get are pictures of exploding VBIEDs."

Feaver Leaving NSC

After two years at the White House as a strategic adviser on national security, Peter D. Feaver is heading back to Duke University to teach international relations. Feaver was a key player at the National Security Council in the past two years on a variety of policies, including President Bush's latest National Security Strategy and the Iraq war review that led to this year's troop buildup.

Feaver, 45, is one of the few people who worked on the National Security Council staff under both Bush and President Bill Clinton. His work helped inform the White House's futile attempts to rally the majority of Americans behind the Iraq war. As he packed up his office on Friday, he told my colleague Peter Baker that he is leaving because his two-year leave from Duke is over.

But he hopes to remain part of the national discussion on Iraq.

"I'm engaged by the public debate that's going on about Iraq, which I think is very important and very fateful for the country," Feaver said. He added: "I have a feeling my academic colleagues will be studying this period for the rest of my life."

Moving On . . .

President Bush last week announced the impending departure of Liza Wright, the director of presidential personnel. The holder of that job helps hire (and occasionally fire) the nearly 4,000 political appointees working at the White House and various federal agencies. Wright is scheduled to leave by the end of next month.

Chubby Detainees at Guantanamo Bay?

Presidential adviser Karl Rove spent more than an hour on the griddle this month as Walter Isaacson, president and chief executive of the Aspen Institute, grilled him on a range of controversial topics during Aspen's Ideas Festival in Colorado.

Rove did not waver as he defended the war in Iraq, the president's energy policy and Bush's failed immigration proposal.

Rove said that while the president would like to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, he called it "a necessary component of the war on terror." As for reports of prisoner abuse there, Rove was dismissive. "Our principal health problem down there is gain of weight, we feed them so well," he said, eliciting groans from the audience.