Word: hruska
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...obfuscated the issue, bringing his candor into question. Critics pointed out that his decisions had frequently been reversed on appeal; there was little to be said in rebuttal. Some of the nation's leading legal scholars and practicing lawyers questioned his judicial skills. On top of that, Senator Roman Hruska argued in Carswell's defense that mediocrity should perhaps be represented on the court...
...confident not only of pinning down the tie vote but also of scratching out one more anti-Carswell ballot. Majority Leader Mike Mansfield agreed to call for a vote on the nomination immediately after the recommittal move lost. The motion required unanimous approval. A perplexed and wary Hruska, floor-managing the Carswell drive, objected...
...Administration strategists quickly assembled in Hruska's office right after the recommittal vote to reassess the situation. They looked at that eight-vote margin and compared notes on which pro-Carswell Senators they might lose. To their consternation, they detected the same potential slippage that Bayh and Brooke had sniffed: the possible loss of Republicans Packwood, Fong and Percy, plus Democrat Dodd. That would not be fatal, since Vice President Agnew would break the tie in the Administration's favor, but it was highly dangerous. "We knew then that we were in trouble," one strategist recalls. The White House...
Parliamentary Gimmick. Carswell also took a beating when it came out that he had suffered what was at best an odd lapse of memory in testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Roman Hruska of Nebraska asked him in January if he had been an incorporator of the Capital City Country Club in Tallahassee (in 1956, Capital City became a private club to escape a desegregation order). "No, sir," Carswell replied. It turned out last week that only the night before his testimony, Carswell had admitted his incorporator's role to two American Bar Association representatives...
...There are, indeed, many mediocre people in the country, and perhaps they do feel under-represented on the court-though certainly not in the Congress. Before Abe Fortas' departure, there had been a "Jewish seat" on the court since Woodrow Wilson appointed Louis Brandeis in 1916. Under the Hruska doctrine, there might henceforth be a place reserved for mediocrities. On reflection, even Hmska, Carswell's chief sponsor in the Senate, realized that his reasoning was more at home in Alice in Wonderland than in the U.S. Senate. He let critics have the floor for most of the week...