The Washington Post reports today that Democrats concede the nomination of Judge John Roberts to the United States Supreme Court. In their article, Roberts Unlikely To Face Big Fight they report the following:

“Democrats have decided that unless there is an unexpected development in the weeks ahead, they will not launch a major fight to block the Supreme Court nomination of John G. Roberts Jr., according to legislators, Senate aides and party strategists.

In a series of interviews in recent days, more than a dozen Democratic senators and aides who are intimately involved in deliberations about strategy said that they see no evidence that most Democratic senators are prepared to expend political capital in what is widely seen as a futile effort to derail the nomination.

Although they expect to subject President Bush’s nominee to tough questioning at confirmation hearings next month, members of the minority party said they do not plan to marshal any concerted campaign against Roberts because they have concluded that he is likely to get at least 70 votes — enough to overrule parliamentary tactics such as a filibuster that could block the nominee.

“No one’s planning all-out warfare,” said a Senate Democratic aide closely involved in caucus strategy on Roberts. For now, the aide said, Democratic strategy is to make it clear Roberts is subject to fair scrutiny while avoiding a pointless conflagration that could backfire on the party. “We’re going to come out of this looking dignified and will show we took the constitutional process seriously,” the aide said.”

This will not be the last word on John Roberts. As a matter of history, we anticipate that Senate Democrats will still attempt a smear and delay campaign just because they need to pacify their extremist base. Roberts will continue to require support from conservatives to stave off any diversionary tactics at the last minute.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 16th, 2005 at 9:05 am and is filed under Supreme Court Nominee. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Tags: John Roberts, judicial nominee, Senate obstructionism, futile effort