White House Plans to Consult With 2 Parties

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 begin early maneuvers in the summer battle over President Bush’s first Supreme Court nomination.

While Bush spends most of the week at meetings in Europe, senior White House officials will canvass Democratic and Republican senators for recommendations to fill the vacancy created 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 the White House to consult with them, reacted cautiously to the signal.

The White House’s “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 and interest groups underscores the priority each side places on shaping the debate.

Both sides are trying to present themselves as reasonable and conciliatory to strengthen their hands for the full-scale combat that most suspect will erupt.

In his remarks after O’Connor announced her resignation, Bush pledged that he and his advisors would consult with the Senate.

Democrats and some Republicans, such as Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, have accused the White House this year of failing to consult sufficiently on Bush’s nominees to 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 high court vacancy.

The president spoke Friday with Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, 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 had 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.).

O’Connor’s announcement surprised many in the capital who had been girding for a resignation from ailing Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.

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

The aide signaled that the White House did not believe Bush was obligated to choose a successor who shared O’Connor’s 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 will 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,” predicted Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way, a liberal group.

Bush leaves Tuesday for Denmark and then Scotland, where he will attend the annual summit of the Group of 8 industrialized nations. White House officials have indicated that he will announce his nominee to succeed O’Connor after he returns.

On Saturday, Bush appeared to be one of the few people still in the Washington area for the holiday weekend who was not focused on the O’Connor vacancy.

The White House aide said the president was at Camp David preparing for the G-8 meeting and was not reviewing materials on potential nominees.

Another senior White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity while discussing the internal deliberations, said Bush probably would begin to seriously examine the contenders when he flew to Europe.

“There has been a lot of work done and the president periodically has been kept apprised of the work,” the official said. “He has always known the orbit of names out there. But this is when he really dives in, in earnest.”

The official added that Bush was likely to interview at least one of the candidates before settling on his choice.

“He is a person who likes to look somebody in the eye, and his desire probably is to do just that,” the official said. “There was an impression that this was going to be pro forma, but it is a genuine process.”

In the 48 hours since O’Connor’s announcement, each side signaled which arguments it was likely to highlight in the period leading to Bush’s nomination.

Senate Democrats have emphasized what some have called “the two Cs”: consultation and consensus. In a message likely to be widely echoed on today’s talk shows, a range of Democrats urged Bush to consult widely and produce what they called a consensus candidate. That would mean a more moderate candidate who could be acceptable to many Democrats as well as Republicans.

Behind the scenes, Democratic leaders are focusing on discouraging their members from establishing strong positions for or against Bush’s eventual choice until the Democratic staff of the Judiciary Committee -- which has assembled preliminary dossiers on about two dozen potential nominees -- can exhaustively review Bush’s selection.

“The goal is for the members, every one, to temper their comments and to wait for the Judiciary Committee,” one senior Democratic aide said.

The White House and Senate Republicans were emphasizing three themes.

One was to insist upon what Bush called Friday “a dignified process of confirmation in the United States Senate.” In effect, that push may be designed to reduce the public’s tolerance for attacks on the eventual nominee from senators and interest groups.

Second, the White House and Senate Republicans have urged an expedited process. The White House aide, for instance, noted that since 1975, the time between nomination and confirmation for Supreme Court justices had averaged 72 days, with President Clinton’s two appointments making that journey in an average of 58 days. One senior GOP Senate aide said Republicans would emphasize “the need for a full complement on the court on the first Monday in October.”

In the third theme, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) previewed what was likely to become another significant Republican refrain when he said in a Washington Post opinion piece Saturday that the nominee should not have to reveal in confirmation hearings his or her views on specific cases such as “abortion, affirmative action, same-sex marriage, the war on terrorism or any other specific issue on which the nominee might eventually rule.”

Amid this maneuvering of the principal players, outside groups quickly escalated their efforts.

Conservative activists and coalitions, for instance, held several conference calls on Saturday, all before noon.

“They vary in size from small -- 10 to 20 people -- to big -- several hundred folks,” said Kay Daly, president of the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary, a group that says it supports nominees who will apply, not create, law. “And those are just the calls that I know about. There are an awful lot of things to set into motion.”

Liberals were just as busy, with groups in the umbrella Coalition for a Fair and Independent Judiciary gathering Saturday morning to plot lobbying efforts targeted at key senators, such as plans to distribute fliers at Fourth of July parades in Nebraska, where moderate Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) faces reelection next year.

Almost immediately after O’Connor announced her retirement, the political action committee associated with the online liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org announced that it was airing a television advertisement on national cable channels and in four states urging Bush not to choose “an extremist.”

By Saturday afternoon, the group had collected about 200,000 signatures on petitions that it planned to begin delivering to senators Tuesday.

“We expect before the president provides a nominee that the grass roots will be completely mobilized,” said Tom Matzzie, the group’s Washington director.

Later Saturday, People for the American Way announced that it would begin airing an ad Tuesday urging Bush to appoint a justice “who protects our fundamental rights and freedoms.”

Jay Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative group, has sent out about 1 million e-mails to supporters, mostly Christian activists, to galvanize them for the confirmation battle ahead.

“We have 82 organizations in our coalition, from social conservatives to economic conservatives,” Sekulow said. “And we’re trying to get message points out to each one.”