Senate judicial showdown just in time for fundraising

WASHINGTON - Republicans this week are forcing showdowns with Democrats over the most conservative of President Bush's judicial nominees, seeing a prime political opportunity just before senators head home for summertime fundraising for next year's elections.

GOP senators have spent the week accusing Democrats of religious bias and of flaunting the Constitution by filibustering four of the White House's most contentious nominees - allegations the Republicans hope will stir outrage back home.

Democrats say that religion has nothing to do with it and that the few nominees they are challenging have not demonstrated fitness for the appointments.

The Democrats are filibustering Texas judge Priscilla Owen, District of Columbia lawyer Miguel Estrada and Mississippi judge Charles Pickering, and most recently Alabama Attorney General William Pryor.

The GOP hopes that casting Democratic opposition to the appointees as hostility to their religious antiabortion positions will make their voters angry in a way their other arguments this year against the filibusters have not.

Senate Democrats began a filibuster of Pryor, who wants a seat on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, on Thursday. Pryor could not get the 60 votes needed from the 100-member Senate to win his seat, with all 51 Republicans and two Democrats, Zell Miller of Georgia and Ben Nelson of Nebraska, voting for him.

Estrada and Owen were blocked earlier in the week. Republicans had hoped to bring up California judge Carolyn Kuhl - who wants a seat on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals - today, but decided to save that test vote until September as part of a package deal with Democrats to start their summer vacation on Thursday night.

"We're willing to stand by our record," said Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, noting that Democrats have helped confirm 140 federal judges since Bush took office.

"We believe we are following the will of the American people who don't want judges who are too far left or too far right," added Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "I assure my colleagues in the Senate that we will continue to do this."

The politically charged votes right before the recess help excite the ideological voters on both sides, who then raise money and turn out the vote come election time, said Nancy Scherer, a University of Miami professor who is writing a book on the nomination process called Scoring Points: Politicians, Activists and the Lower Court Appointment Process.

"The activists and the politicians - the people who really care about these issues - they want to know where everyone stands," she said. "It helps them to be able to go out into the fields during the break and point to a vote and say, "He's with us,' or "He's not with us.' "

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