Word: bork
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...addition to Biden and Kennedy, criticism of Bork in the Judiciary Committee is likely to come from Paul Simon, who, like Biden, is a candidate for the Democratic nomination. Bork's most fervent support will come from two conservative Republicans, South Carolina's Strom Thurmond and Utah's Orrin Hatch. Later, when the issue reaches the Senate floor, Minority Leader Robert Dole will head the fight on Bork's behalf. The three key swing votes on the committee: Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Democrats Howell Heflin of Alabama and Dennis DeConcini of Arizona. Last week DeConcini still...
...staff of the Democratic-led Judiciary Committee promptly responded with a 72-page study of its own. It criticized the White House report for its "major inaccuracies" and "omissions" regarding Bork's record. Citing scores of Bork's articles and decisions, the report defines the nominee as an "extremely conservative activist," not a "genuine apostle of judicial moderation and restraint." The battle of the briefing books continued through the weekend: the Justice Department released a 240-page rebuttal of the half- dozen anti-Bork reports produced over the past two months...
Some Reagan supporters fault the President for trying to depict Bork as a centrist. Bruce Fein, a conservative legal scholar and former Reagan Justice Department official, gives the Administration's strategy an A-plus for "ineptitude and cuteness." Contends Fein: "It's counterproductive because in the long run jurisprudence won't change unless the President says, 'I campaigned because we wanted to change the Supreme Court, and Bork represents the kind of judge who will correct the errors the court has made in the past.' " Fein believes the attempt to portray Bork as a moderate will collapse at the hearings...
...Africa last summer, Biden's angry attack on Shultz left some viewers with an intemperate image of the Senator. As Biden concedes, "Exposure is good only if you do well, only if you appear knowledgeable and fair." Both Democrat DeConcini and Republican Hatch have warned somewhat hyperbolically that if Bork's opponents on the committee attack the judge too aggressively, it could spoil the Democrats' chances of regaining the White House...
More important than all the political gambits and the thunder from both ends of the spectrum will be the testimony of one man. "If you are looking for a secret weapon in the upcoming confirmation hearings," says Hatch, "it is Judge Robert Bork. The longer he testifies before the Judiciary Committee, the more persuasive and reasoned his philosophy of judicial restraint will sound." Armed with an agile mind and a caustic wit, Bork is expected to be a formidable opponent for his critics on the committee. "Any Senator who decides to just jump in and portray Bork as some racist...