White House aide
confirmed to federal bench
By AP from CNN.com on
the Web, May 26, 2006
WASHINGTON -- White House aide
Brett Kavanaugh won Senate confirmation as an appeals judge Friday after a wait
of nearly three years, yet another victory in President Bush's drive to place a
more conservative stamp on the nation's courts.
Kavanaugh was confirmed on a vote of 57-36, warmly praised by Republicans but
widely opposed by Democrats who said he is ill-suited to sit on the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
In a statement, Bush said Kavanaugh will be "a brilliant, thoughtful and
fair-minded judge."
The vote marked the latest in a string of confirmations for conservative
appellate court nominees in the year since a centrist group of senators agreed
on terms designed to prevent a meltdown over Bush's conservative picks.
Kavanaugh was not mentioned by name in an agreement announced by the so-called
Gang of 14, but his nomination was pending at the time and he figured in the
discussions. More recently, the seven Democrats who were members of the
group had intervened in his case, calling for a second Judiciary Committee
hearing into his appointment. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, chairman
of the panel, agreed, defusing any threat of a filibuster designed to block a
vote.
Still, Democrats highlighted the American Bar Association's recent downgrading
of their rating of Kavanaugh from "highly qualified" to "qualified."
"It's clear that he is a political pick being pushed for political reasons,"
said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary
Committee. "This is not a court that needs another rubber stamp for this
president's exertion of executive power."
The White House and Specter said Kavanaugh's Ivy League education, a Supreme
Court clerkship and other work have prepared him well to become a federal judge.
Specter's committee approved the nomination along party lines.
"It is hardly a surprise that Brett Kavanaugh would be close to the president
because the president selects people in whom he has confidence," Specter said.
"Brett M. Kavanaugh must be confirmed."
The filibuster threat softened after Specter granted Democrats' request for a
new hearing at which Kavanaugh testified. The nominee told Democrats he
played no role in the White House formulation of policies on detainees, domestic
wiretapping or any relationship with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Kavanaugh, the White House staff secretary, was an assistant to independent
counsel Kenneth Starr during the impeachment probe of President Clinton and he
worked on behalf of the Bush campaign during the election recount in 2000.
Ralph Neas, president of the liberal-oriented lobbying group People for the
American Way, said that Bush and Senate Republicans "have succeeded today in
putting a partisan lapdog into a powerful, lifetime position on the federal
bench. Brett Kavanaugh has spent his career as a partisan operative,
carrying out the will of the Bush administration and twisting legal arguments to
benefit his political ideology."
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