White House says it will seek input on justice nominee

WASHINGTON – The White House plans to solicit opinions this week from senators in both parties, a senior White House aide said Saturday, as the two sides began early maneuvers in the summer battle over President Bush’s first Supreme Court nomination.

While Bush will spend most of the week at meetings in Europe, senior White House officials plan to canvass Democratic and Republican senators for recommendations to fill the vacancy opened when Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced her retirement Friday, said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“It will be senior White House staff consulting with senators in both parties,” the official said. “White House staff will be asking senators for their ideas about good candidates to be nominated.”

Democrats and their allies who have emphasized that they want to be consulted reacted cautiously to the signal from White House.

“Their track record of even consulting with Republicans on Capitol Hill is very poor,” said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “It remains to be seen if this is an encouraging first step or is just going to be a one-way dialogue.”

The maneuvering by the White House, senators of both parties and interest groups underscores the priority each side places on shaping the debate.

In his remarks after O’Connor announced her resignation Friday, Bush pledged that he and his advisers would consult with the Senate. Democrats and even some Republican senators such as Susan Collins, of Maine, have accused the White House this year of failing to consult sufficiently on Bush’s nominees for the federal district and appellate courts.

Speaking with reporters Friday, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the administration would undertake “more thorough consulting” on the Supreme Court vacancy.

The president spoke Friday with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and placed a call to Reid, although they did not connect, according to White House and congressional officials. The White House aide said Bush has also scheduled a meeting for July 11 with Reid, Leahy, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

Because O’Connor has so often functioned as the decisive fifth vote in a divided court, her retirement ignited intense lobbying campaigns from groups on the left and the right who believe her successor could determine the court’s balance of power.

While promising to consult, the aide signaled that the White House did not believe that Bush faced an obligation to replace O’Connor with a justice who shared her relatively moderate views, as some Democrats and liberal groups have suggested.

“The notion that there is … a narrow band of people who are appropriate to replace Justice O’Connor is wrong,” the official said. “The president will consult, but the president will make a decision.”

Given Bush’s repeated declarations that he intended to appoint justices with similarities to Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, two of the Court’s most conservative members, many liberals remain skeptical that he would genuinely consider Democrats’ views before naming his choice.

“There will be activities that constitute an appearance of bipartisan consultation, but it will not be what is actually happening,” said Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way, a leading liberal group.