Byrd Threatens Delay on Nominee : Senate Leader Wants Republicans to Stop Blocking Legislation

Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) threatened Monday to hold President Reagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court hostage unless Republicans stop obstructing legislation important to Democrats.

When the nomination of a replacement for retiring Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. reaches the Senate, “it might not be a bad idea to say that there are equally important matters facing the Senate,” Byrd told reporters at a luncheon.

That pending legislation, he said, includes arms control and campaign spending limitation measures, which Republican lawmakers are blocking with strong support from the President.

‘Let’s Just Slow Down’

The Senate’s Democratic majority may decide that “if we’re going to have all this stalling by the Republicans, then let’s just slow down and take a closer look at this nomination,” Byrd said.

Byrd’s comments on the nomination came several hours before sources said Reagan had decided to choose appeals court judge Robert H. Bork, who is championed by conservatives.

Supreme Court nominations must be confirmed by the Senate. This nomination is critical for Reagan as he moves into the final months of his presidency because it may become one of his last opportunities to exercise his conservative influence over high court opinions for decades to come.

Adding to its significance is the fact that Reagan will be replacing a justice who provided the pivotal vote for liberals on such issues as abortion, school prayer and affirmative action.

Also, the struggle--or lack of one--over the nomination will be seen as a test of Reagan’s political clout in the wake of the Iran- contra affair.

Byrd said the Senate--where Democrats hold a 54-46 majority--is likely to resist a judicial candidate that it perceives as “ideologically rigid and inflexible,” but he said it would be willing to accept a “conservative who has some good basis for being put on the court.” He said Bork would encounter problems, but would probably be confirmed.

Byrd also remained sharply critical of the Administration’s plans to provide a naval escort for 11 Kuwaiti oil tankers flying the American flag through the Persian Gulf, but he admitted that Democrats are uncomfortable with the prospect of abruptly shutting down the effort.

He described the Persian Gulf initiative, which would dramatically increase U.S. presence in that troubled, strategically sensitive region, as “highly visible, highly provocative, unnecessarily provocative, inadequately thought through.”

But Byrd also noted that Democrats are leery of being accused of “jerking the rug out” from under Reagan, particularly at a time when the President’s international reputation has been “severely impaired” by the Iran-contra affair.

Congressional leaders will meet with Reagan today to discuss the plan. Secretary of State George P. Shultz had complained Sunday that lawmakers are “betwixt and between” on the issue, and “can’t make up their minds.”

However, House Speaker Jim Wright countered Monday: “We have been seen as irresolute or indecisive because we have not wanted to rush to judgment or embarrass the President. . . . We’re trying to help him avoid embarrassment, not embarrass him.”

Today’s meeting, Wright said, could determine whether the House votes this week to restrict the proposal to reflag the tankers.

“We’re ready to go. The votes are there” for an initial victory in the House against the plan, said Rep. Tony Coelho (D-Merced), a member of the House leadership. But he noted that “there is no way to stop the President,” because Democrats do not have the two-thirds majority required for overriding a presidential veto.

Byrd described the current situation between Congress and the White House as “an atmosphere of confrontation.”

He has been trying to bring the $303-billion defense bill to the Senate floor since early May but repeatedly has been stymied by Republican parliamentary maneuvers. The Administration has backed the Republican attempt to keep the bill from the floor, opposing arms control language that is attached to it.

Republicans have also managed through a filibuster to block Senate consideration of another high-priority item for Democrats: legislation that would put voluntary limits on spending in Senate races, provide public financing for candidates who agreed to run within those limits and restrict the total amount that candidates could receive from political action committees. The Republicans contend that the measure would be costly and unduly restrictive.