WASHINGTON - A conservative group in Virginia said Tuesday it was withdrawing its support for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts' confirmation because of his work helping overturn a Colorado referendum on gays.
The group, Public Advocate of the United States, is one of the first conservative organizations to announce anything but support for the judge
Eugene Delgaudio, the president of the group, said in an interview that he hopes his stance will prod others.
"I know that others feel the same way. I know they believe as I do. They're just not going to act," the 50-year-old Northern Virginia man said. "But once I've done it, then they can't claim that no one's opposing Roberts.
"We can't take our limited resources and put it toward a candidate who is not a strict constructionist when we were told he is," Delgaudio said.
The stance by his group, which describes itself as a pro-family organization, puts it in opposition to conservative groups that have endorsed Roberts. A number of liberal groups already oppose President Bush's high court nominee.
Miller to oversee war monuments, cemeteries
WASHINGTON - After snubbing his Democratic Party to deliver the Republican keynote address for President Bush, former Georgia Sen. Zell Miller seemed a good bet for an ambassadorship, adviser post or maybe even a Cabinet office.
On Tuesday, the White House revealed Miller's choice: a seat on the American Battle Monuments Commission.
"I'm just an old man looking after cemeteries," Miller said in an interview Tuesday after President Bush tapped him for the job.
Although Miller has retired from virtually all aspects of public life since leaving the Senate in January, he acknowledged letting Bush know of his interest in the commission last year after returning from the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Normandy.
Bush bypasses Senate to install Rumsfeld aide
WASHINGTON - President Bush for the second time in a week used a constitutional power to bypass the Senate and fill a senior Pentagon post with an official whose nomination was stalled in the Senate.
The White House announced on Tuesday that Bush named Eric S. Edelman to be undersecretary of defense for policy, the chief policy adviser to the secretary of defense. Edelman replaces Douglas J. Feith, whose battles with Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., over the release of documents related to Iraq stalled Edelman's nomination.
Edelman is a career foreign service officer. He served as ambassador to Turkey from July 2003 to June 2005, and he was a national security assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney from February 2001 to June 2003.
Edelman's nomination to replace Feith was sent to the Senate on May 16.
Last week Bush approved a recess appointment for Peter Flory to be assistant secretary of defense for international security policy, a post that had not been filled by a Senate-confirmed official since J.D. Crouch left in 2004.
