Of all the political fights associated with filling the newly-announced Supreme Court vacancy, I didn’t expect the most divisive and contentious to be the bitter dispute between conservative Republicans and far-right conservative Republicans over whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales belongs on the short list. And yet, that’s what we have.
The White House and the Senate Republican leadership are pushing back against pressure from some of their conservative allies about the coming Supreme Court nomination, urging them to stop attacking Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales as a potential nominee and to tone down their talk of a culture war.
In a series of conference calls on Tuesday and over the last several days, Republican Senate aides encouraged conservative groups to avoid emphasizing the searing cultural issues that social conservatives see at the heart of the court fight, subjects like abortion, public support for religion and same-sex marriage, participants said.
Instead, these participants, who insisted on anonymity to avoid exclusion from future calls, said the aides – including Barbara Ledeen of the Senate Republican Conference and Eric Ueland, chief of staff to Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader – emphasized themes that had been tested in polls, including a need for a fair and dignified confirmation process.
Mr. Ueland acknowledged that he and others had been working almost since the vacancy occurred last Friday with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s resignation to persuade conservative activists to steer clear of divisive language.
“Every contact we have with these folks is ‘stay on message, stay on purpose,’ ” Mr. Ueland said. “The extremism of language, if there is to be any, should be demonstrably on the other side. The hysteria and the foaming at the mouth ought to come from the left.”
And yet, it’s not. The real hysteria is almost exclusively coming from the GOP base, which is emphasizing the same message repeatedly: Gonzales isn’t good enough.
Part of the problem for the right, I think, is not just over Gonzales’ right-wing bona fides. The dilemma seems to be over whose job it is to fill this vacancy. The White House is looking at the Constitution and believes it’s Bush’s choice. The far-right GOP base is looking at the election results and believes it’s their choice.
That’s only slightly hyperbolic. In the immediate aftermath of the O’Connor retirement announcement, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said, “We have been waiting over a decade. We will seize this opportunity.” Moreover, Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, declared, “For President Bush, social conservatives and the senators they helped elect, the moment of truth has arrived.”
This language isn’t subtle. Far-right activists have been waiting for this vacancy and, as far as they’re concerned, they’ve earned a lot more than a seat at the table. They believe that they should either a) play an integral role in choosing the nominee; or b) at a minimum, have veto power over a choice they believe is unacceptable. And as far as they’re concerned, Gonzales is unacceptable.
Within hours after Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s announced retirement from the Supreme Court, members of conservative groups around the country convened in five national conference calls in which, participants said, they shared one big concern: heading off any effort by President Bush to nominate his attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzales, to replace her.
Late last week, a delegation of conservative lawyers led by C. Boyden Gray and former Attorney General Edwin Meese III met with the White House chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., to warn that appointing Mr. Gonzales would splinter conservative support.
And Paul M. Weyrich, a veteran conservative organizer and chairman of the Free Congress Foundation, said he had told administration officials that nominating Mr. Gonzales, whose views on abortion are considered suspect by religious conservatives, would fracture the president’s conservative backers.
The fascinating part is seeing the fight unfold in ways in which neither side (right vs. far right) knows how to hold back. The base says Gonzales has to be off the table … prompting the White House to tell the base to shut up … prompting the base to say, “No, you shut up.”
This creates an unexpected dilemma for the Bush gang and a fight that’s pitting the grassroots against the establishment.
Keep in mind, the president wants to nominate Gonzales. How do we know? The key conservative insider guiding the process said so over the weekend.
“It’s a fairly sophisticated choice to be facing,” said C. Boyden Gray, White House counsel under President George H.W. Bush and now a strategist on court nominees for the current administration. Bush “really does want to appoint Gonzales.”
If Bush does tap Gonzales, he’ll be thumbing his nose at the Republican base for the first time, which will infuriate Dobson & Co., and could undermine the GOP coalition in advance of next year’s election. If he doesn’t, Bush, once again, will appear beholden to far-right activists who are driving the White House agenda.
Your move, Karl.