Democrats Try to Save Lee Nomination

Senate Democrats appeared ready to make a last attempt today to save the nomination of Los Angeles lawyer Bill Lann Lee as the nation’s top civil rights enforcer by using parliamentary tactics to delay a vote until next year.

Barring unexpected developments, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee apparently will try to filibuster the nomination until the Senate adjourns for the year, which it is expected to do late in the day. Otherwise, the committee is likely to reject Lee’s appointment and to block it from reaching the Senate floor.

If the Democrats succeed, Lee’s nomination will be put off until early next year, giving supporters more time to convert at least two of the panel’s 10 Republicans.

Lee’s nomination as assistant attorney general for civil rights has become embroiled in a partisan battle over affirmative action policies. Republicans say they are concerned that Lee would use the position to push racial-preference programs. His supporters say his foes want him to disavow the affirmative action policies of President Clinton, who nominated him.

The committee’s eight Democrats need Republican defections to get the 10 votes needed to recommend Lee’s confirmation or at least to send it to the floor for full Senate consideration.

To end the filibuster and bring the issue to a vote, committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who declared Lee’s nomination dead last Sunday, would need 10 votes. But under committee rules, at least one of those must come from a member of the minority party--and it appears that no Democrat would break ranks.

“I expect we will meet and debate this nomination for as long as it takes to lose a [10-member] quorum,” said an aide to a Democratic committee member. He contended that all eight Democrats on the panel are united on the issue.

A spokeswoman for Hatch said he expects the committee to vote on Lee today.

The vote already has been delayed once. Last Thursday, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the panel’s ranking Democrat, used a onetime power to delay consideration for at least a week.

Democrats had anticipated that they would get the vote of Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), but Specter has not committed himself publicly--either on an up-or-down vote or on reporting Lee’s name without recommendation to the full Senate.

Even if Democratic hopes prove correct, the minority party would need another Republican vote because a tie would defeat the nomination.

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Lee’s supporters rallied at the Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday and vowed their continued support of the nominee, who has been Western regional counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in Los Angeles.

“We are not prepared to support anybody but Bill Lann Lee,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus. “On this one, our feet are cast in concrete. We shall not move,” she told a news conference at the memorial.

“This is too important a nomination for too good a nominee to have it die in committee,” Leahy said. “And so I say to our Republican colleagues on the Judiciary Committee: Let the Senate decide.”