Beating a Dead Horse

Dead on arrival at the U.S. Senate days ago, the nomination of Robert H. Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court lies moldering while senators debate the schedule for debate. Coincidentally or not, a conservative political group is ghoulishly using the delay to raise money for itself. But for this, the Bork affair could be long buried and President Reagan could have nominated a new candidate for the court.

But why would the majority Democrats delay the debate on Bork? They know that they have the votes to formally put an end to Bork’s chances of being on the court.

Actually, Democrats have pushed for a quick vote. The delay is the work of a small group of conservative Republicans led by Sen. Gordon J. Humphrey of New Hampshire. Humphrey claims that Bork’s supporters need more time to prepare an adequate rebuttal to alleged distortions about Bork’s record brought by Bork opponents during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings.

Humphrey happens to be honorary co-chairman of the National Conservative Political Action Committee, which has fallen on hard times and now is conducting a week-long telephone campaign to enlist support for Bork on the floor of the Senate and to raise money for NCPAC. With 54 senators already on record against Bork, any attempt to persuade potential donors that there is a real chance of winning the vote is pure flimflam.

All the while, the President continues to lash out at Bork critics and attack “private interest groups” for using the issue to raise money. Certainly liberal groups used the Bork nomination to stir up their members and raise funds, but that campaign ended when the committee voted 9 to 5 more than a week ago to recommend full Senate rejection of the nomination.

The debate will not start until Tuesday at the earliest, and Humphrey is demanding four or five days to discuss a moot issue. Even NCPAC members are bound to get bored with the issue by then. In the process, the President’s chances of winning confirmation of a new Supreme Court justice this year grow slimmer and slimmer. The longer Humphrey beats a dead horse, the more likely the bruises ultimately will cause pain at the White House.