Senate Panel to Probe Thomas’ Travel Billing : Judiciary: Issue is seen as a question of integrity. Danforth calls it ‘as trivial as anything can get.’

The allegation that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas billed the government for up to a dozen personal trips will be investigated by the Senate Judiciary Committee at Thomas’ confirmation hearings this week, a Democratic member of the panel said Sunday.

Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) said that Thomas’ travel as head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission during the Ronald Reagan Administration could be an issue, although Thomas’ chief Senate sponsor, Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), called it “about as trivial as anything can get” in considering the nomination.

“If a government official is taking trips at the government’s expense that are personal trips, that may not be a lot of money but it goes to the question of integrity, it goes to the question of honesty and I’m not making any accusations because I’m saying up front I know very little about it,” Metzenbaum said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“But I do believe it’s part of our responsibility to find out what the facts are and bring them to the attention of the American people and ask Judge Thomas about them,” the Ohio Democrat added.

The charges concerning Thomas’ travel were made Saturday by People for the American Way, a civil liberties group that previously announced its opposition to Thomas’ confirmation by the Senate.

During the program, CBS moderator Bob Schieffer added that the network found that Thomas billed the EEOC for three trips to Boston in 1982, 1983 and 1984 but neither the White House nor the federal agency could say whether he conducted any official business in Boston at those times.

While Danforth said that he was not aware of the facts concerning Thomas’ travel, he insisted that the Senate committee should focus on the qualifications, background and character of the black conservative jurist chosen to replace retiring Justice Thurgood Marshall.

“What’s happening now with Supreme Court nominees is various groups paw through the records, through tens of thousands of documents, hoping they can find something to throw at the guy,” Danforth said on “Face the Nation.”

“If all they have to throw is that he went from Washington to Boston three times over a period of eight years, that is about as frivolous as anything can be,” Danforth added. “Having known Clarence Thomas for 17 years . . . I have not heard anybody question his honesty or his integrity. Nobody, not even his worst enemy.”

Later, on the same program, Democratic National Chairman Ron Brown was asked about the charges concerning Thomas’ travel.

“Well, it certainly isn’t the most important thing in the confirmation process,” replied Brown, who opposes Thomas’ elevation from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to the Supreme Court.

“I think the important thing is where does he stand on the important issues of law that justices of the highest court in America have to decide,” Brown added. “I care about a woman’s right to choose (abortion), I care about civil rights and equal justice and I think we ought to have a (Supreme) court that has not moved way, way to the right.”

Clayton K. Yeutter, chairman of the Republican Party, said that every opinion poll indicates very strong public support for Thomas, adding: “Ron’s upset because he (Thomas) is not a liberal. But the fact is there’s nothing in the Constitution of the United States that says the President . . . must nominate liberals to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Yeutter said that he expects many Democratic senators to vote for the confirmation of Thomas after the televised committee hearings, which are scheduled to begin Tuesday.

On another issue, Metzenbaum said that he would ask Thomas directly whether he supports a Supreme Court decision that held a woman’s right to an abortion is constitutionally protected.

“I think he has a responsibility to speak out,” Metzenbaum said. “I say that because Judge Thomas has spoken out and criticized about 12 previous Supreme Court decisions on a host of different subjects.”

Danforth, however, objected. “I think it is absolutely wrong if members of the Senate try to get a judge to promise how he would vote on a specific case before the Supreme Court as a condition for his confirmation,” he said.

Meantime, White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he could not rule out the possibility that Thomas would be rejected by the Senate.

“There is always the possibility,” Sununu said. “Things can come out in a hearing, there may be difficulty in the hearing by the nominee and so on, but we are comfortable going into this hearing that the confirmation process will go forward smoothly and that Clarence will be confirmed.”

Later in the program, Sununu sounded a more positive note.

“We think he (Thomas) is still in good shape and will be confirmed but, the fact is, the climate in this country for nominations in general has become a little bit more of a partisan situation and the country would probably be better off if it were not in that mode.”