Panel Unanimously Backs Thornburgh

President Reagan’s nomination of Richard L. Thornburgh to succeed Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III won unanimous approval Wednesday from the Senate Judiciary Committee and appeared headed for prompt confirmation by the full Senate.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), acting committee chairman, urged Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) to move the nomination quickly to the Senate floor so that Thornburgh could be approved before the chamber adjourns, possibly today, until Sept. 7.

At his one-day confirmation hearing last week, the former Pennsylvania governor, who is considered a Republican moderate, won enthusiastic bipartisan support from committee members. His approval by the panel Wednesday was by voice vote with no dissent.

Urges Prompt Action

Kennedy said he hoped the full Senate would now act promptly “in the interest of getting new leadership at the Justice Department . . . and restoring the confidence of the American people.”

Meese, who announced his resignation last month after independent counsel James C. McKay completed an investigation of his affairs, has told associates he plans to leave his post effective this weekend.

Meese said last month he felt “vindicated” because McKay, on the basis of his 14-month inquiry, declined to seek a criminal indictment against him. However, McKay criticized Meese for flaws in his income tax returns and for several actions that benefitted his longtime friend and former lawyer, E. Robert Wallach.

In taking up the Thornburgh nomination, the Senate also is expected to approve the appointment of three other high-ranking Justice Department officials to replace three who resigned earlier this year. All have been serving in an acting capacity.

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Two of the former officials, Deputy Atty. Gen. Arnold I. Burns and Assistant Atty. Gen. William F. Weld, quit in protest over Meese’s refusal to step down earlier. The third, Associate Atty. Gen. Stephen S. Trott, resigned to accept appointment as a federal appellate judge.

Replacing the trio will be Deputy Atty. Gen. Harold G. Christensen, Associate Atty. Gen. Francis A. Keating II and Assistant Atty. Gen. Edward S.G. Dennis Jr.

Thornburgh was a two-term Pennsylvania governor from 1979 to 1987 and currently is director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

He also was chief of the Justice Department’s criminal division from 1975 to 1977 in the Gerald R. Ford Administration, and was responsible for creating the department’s public integrity section, which investigates alleged corruption by public officials.

Thornburgh, 56, assured senators last week that he would hold the Justice Department to “the highest ethical standards” if he is approved as attorney general.

“I will be highly sensitive to appearances of impropriety as well as impropriety itself,” he said.