I blame the "gang-of-14" for this weak nomination in the first place.
South Carolina Ping
Posted on 10/18/2005 5:56:03 PM PDT by Stellar Dendrite
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) are calling for the White House to turn over internal documents related to Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers’s service as White House counsel, breaking with Republican colleagues who say the boundaries of executive privilege must not be pushed.
Perhaps anticipating Republican demands for internal memos, White House staff members yesterday told Senate GOP staffers that the White House will provide evidence illuminating Miers’s legal thinking in action.
Both lawmakers are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will begin confirmation hearings for Miers the week of Nov. 7.
Graham’s and Brownback’s push for greater disclosure will give Democrats political leverage should they ask for memos and other documents shedding light on Miers’s work within the Bush administration’s inner circle. It would take only two Republicans to defeat Miers in committee, although that would not prevent the nomination’s automatic discharge to a floor vote.
Democrats were unable to persuade the Bush administration during the summer to turn over documents related to Chief Justice John Roberts’s service as deputy solicitor general in the administration of George H.W. Bush.
But while Graham and Brownback’s demand for executive documents may coincide with the political aims of Democrats, it is aimed at conservatives who are withholding their support of the nomination.
Influential conservative leaders, activists and intellectuals have rebelled against her nomination because Miers lacks an extensive record of legal writings that reveal her views of important questions, such as whether the right to abortion is protected by the Constitution.
In meetings and phone conversations, several of these conservatives have asked repeatedly of White House surrogates who are defending Miers for evidence that would show her legal philosophy and how she is likely to act as a Supreme Court justice.
These demands for evidence run counter to administration efforts spearheaded by Vice President Cheney over the past five years to strengthen presidential prerogatives and executive privilege. And while several Republican senators disagree, Graham and Brownback believe the boundaries of executive privilege must be pushed on the Miers nomination.
“I would like to see them review the policy documents that she was a part of — not the legal documents [from] when she was in the [counsel’s] office but the policy documents — and really consider what of those they can release,” Brownback said in an interview a few hours after the Senate Judiciary Committee made public Miers’s answers to a questionnaire.
Graham said: “Where there’s a close call, the tie goes toward disclosure.”
He explained that he wants to see White House documents that reveal Miers’s “legal analysis of constitutional issues. Her personal, private — really sensitive stuff — strategy memos maybe not, but big-themes views of the law.”
Both Brownback and Graham have special relationships with the conservative base of the Republican Party. Brownback is expected to run as the leading out-and-out conservative candidate in the 2008 presidential primary. Graham hails from a very conservative state, and conservative leaders are still angry with him because of his role in the so-called Gang of 14, which brokered a compromise avoiding a Senate showdown on appellate-court judges.
During a joint appearance on Fox News this month, Gary Bauer, a conservative former presidential candidate and now president of American Values, rebuked Graham over his role in the deal.
“I still remember an agreement he signed on to a few weeks ago that conservatives have not reconciled themselves to,” Bauer said.
In response to a Judiciary Committee question asking her to describe in detail any matters she addressed that involved constitutional questions, Miers first listed her service as White House counsel but wrote a terse explanation of her duties.
“As Counsel to the President, I am regularly faced with issues involving constitutional questions,” she wrote. “I am called upon to advise the President and the White House officials on presidential prerogatives, the separation of powers, executive authority, and the constitutionality of proposed regulations and statutes.”
Brownback and Graham’s demand sets them apart from Republican colleagues such as Sen. Charles Grassley (Iowa), a senior member of the judiciary panel.
“My answer is that, no, not much should be released,” Grassley said. “I think it’s important not just for Harriet Miers or this president; it’s important because of the institution of presidency.
“This presidency has a responsibility to make sure that the constitutional power of the presidency is not diluted.”
Even Republicans who have raised questions about Miers’s nomination have shied away from asking Bush to bend the limits his administration has set on executive privilege for Miers’s nomination.
“I’m very interested in looking at her whole background, but crossing the line in terms of privileged documents is a very legitimate concern,” said Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who was not afraid to criticize the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. “I respect that concern.”
Earlier yesterday, Vitter issued a press release challenging Miers’s nomination.
“In terms of her background and experience, I’m hearing it described as very ‘practical,’” Vitter said. “I just want to make sure she’s not practical like a lot of political people are — with no consistent philosophy and without the will to stand up against popular attitudes when they’re not grounded in the Constitution.”
ping
Is Graham worried that some other Republican might potentially get more media exposure than him?
Kick this stupid ass in the head and say "60 votes."
They want executive documents ??
They know better ... so the question is .. what are they really up to?
Sucking up to the ballistic hyenas.
They can't be up to proving their manhood. They have none.
Graham is whoring for the camera, again.
Brownback wants to know if he can support her.
And without documents, liberals have no ammunition. They're screwed.
Graham and Brownback can be seen as heroes for some conservatives by rebuking Miers. But, if they do so by crossing the line that has been written and defended by presidents, they may lose their opportunities. If they want to vote 'no', just say so without having to demand those documents.
When the Democrats give up their "documents" from the People for the UNAmerican Way, NARAL, etc., etc. helping them plot a strategy to trash anyone who gets in their way. I guarantee there are worse things in those than anything that Miers has in her files.
I blame the "gang-of-14" for this weak nomination in the first place.
He has intentionally made his situation worse at every turn.
This is inept political decisionmaking multiplied to the nth degree.
YES! That's the very same Lindsay Graham.
Thanks for the warning .. I suppose this means I can go step in front of the bus now that I know it's not worth going on
Bush is president. You're not. You don't get to pick Supreme Court nominees.
Morons.
What are they up to?
Playing into the hands of democrats.
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