ConfirmThem

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Mark Kilmer has again bravely sat through Meet the Press, Fox News Sunday, Face the Nation, This Week, and Late Edition. His full summary is at redstate. Below the fold is the nomination-related stuff.

NBC'S MEET THE PRESS, Andrea Mitchell played a clip of Ted Kennedy repeating his old Judge Bork speech about rolling back rights and separating lunch counters. Specter responded: "It would be very useful to the country if the rhetoric would be turned down." He suggested that Kennedy was "laying down a marker… picking a fight." For his part, Leahy allowed that he had "a great deal of respect for Ted," but "I agree with Arlen." Specter noted that though he voted against Judge Robert Bork's confirmation in 1987, he almost supported the judge after hearing a Gregory Peck commercial trashing him. [The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee thus admitted that his reasons for voting against a qualified judicial nominee were so flimsy as to be almost reversed by a television commercial.]

The transcript for Meet the Press is here.

FOX NEWS SUNDAY Chris Wallace asked Sen. Feinstein to suggest nominees for the President. Di Fi said that this was "up to the President", it was not her place. Perhaps noticing that she had just contradicted her party's leadership, she added that the President should "consult with" Leahy and Reid. Wallace talked about when the President would hold hearings. Feinstein was adamant that she was going home for August, adding: "To set arbitrary timetables, at this point, would be a mistake."

Lindsey Graham said that the President should not have to choose a centrist nominee, as ideological balance has "never been the standard." He noted that Clarence Thomas replaced Thurgood Marshall. [Also note that Justice Ginsburg replaced Byron White]. Wallace asked Lindsey "Gang of 14" Graham about "extraordinary circumstances," and Graham explained that the term meant conduct problems, etc., and that an extraordinary circumstance was not about ideology. Lindsey "Gang of 14" Graham told Wallace that the Gang of 14 had not met regarding the Supreme Court vacancy. He added: "I'm against gangs," and offered that he had no tattoo.

Chris Wallace next talked to conservative C. Boyden Gray of the Committee for Justice and Nan Aron of the liberal Alliance for Justice. Gray said that he would support Gonzales. Aron gave Gonzales a pass, stipulating that she did not know a thing about him.

Transcripts of Fox News Sunday are here and here.

CBS'S FACE THE NATION On consultation, Hatch said the Constitution does not require consultation, which he called a "courtesy" of recent genesis. Biden said that the President should nominate a mainstream conservative, "like [Ruth Bader] Ginsberg."

Hatch said the attacks on Gonzales were "pure bunk." He called Gonzales a "very fine man," adding: "If he gets picked, I would support him."

Biden said that some conservatives argue that the takings clause prohibits localities from using zoning laws to keep porn shops out of residential neighborhoods. He retracted that argument without prompting a moment later.

Asked if Roe v. Wade were a "defining issue" for him, Biden responded, "No."

Biden said that "yes, there are" reasons to filibuster a Supreme Court nominee. He said that Republicans had filibustered Abe Fortas and killed his nomination to be Chief Justice. Hatch clarified that the Fortas filibuster was bipartisan. [It was also not conducted to kill the nomination but rather to extend debate, nor did Fortas have a clear majority lined up to vote for him.]

Biden said that he "could see a circumstance" where the Dems would filibuster, and he said that would be the nomination of Edith Jones [5th circuit, Reagan], who is too extremist and divisive. Biden quickly corrected himself: he meant to say Judge Janice Rogers Brown.

A transcript from Face the Nation is here.

ABC'S THIS WEEK Ted Kennedy declared on ABC's This Week that a nominee's ideology was the most important thing to consider, and that this was President Reagan's fault for nominating Judge Bork. Kennedy commended President Bush for having nominated O'Conner back in '81. [We don't know if he meant this President Bush or his father, but neither man is President Reagan.]

Specter said that the nominee was the President's choice, and the President did not have to choose someone who fit Ted Kennedy's definitions. He commended the President for saying that he'd consult with Leahy and Reid, Frist and himself, before appointing. He chastised Kennedy for attacking before anyone was nominated.

Kennedy commended the President for reaching out to Democrats, adding that it was Constitutionally required that he do so. [A proposition earlier refuted by Orrin Hatch on Face the Nation.] He rejected the nomination of Alberto Gonzales to the Supreme Court because of the "torture memorandum" having "endangered our troops."

Specter said that he had suggested no names to the President, as he was not asked. "Don't ask, don't tell," he laughed.

Stephanopoulos mentioned to Kennedy that he had ruled ideology out of the mix when defending Thurgood Marshall's nomination back in 1967. Kennedy said this had changed when President Reagan nominated Judge Bork for purely ideological reasons having nothing to do with the man's qualifications. He trashed Bork for wanting to send us back to an era when yadda, yadda, yadda, and had his nomination been confirmed "it would be an entirely different America."

Smelling blood, Specter jumped on. He shouted that Bork would have segregated the Senate galleries and was in possession of "extreme views." [Both he and Kennedy seem to have a vested interest in seeing that Judge Bork is transformed into an eternal bogeyman, becoming more and more sinister with the passing of time.]

Steph listed some potential nominees for Kennedy -- Clement, Jones, Garza, Roberts -- but Kennedy wouldn't take the bait and address them individually. Specter wouldn't either. Cornyn and Schumer in the next segment wouldn't touch them either.

Next on ABC's This Week, Steph talked to Senators John Cornyn and Chuck Schumer. Schumer argued that ideology had always been the first concern, as when the Senate rejected then-President George Washington's nomination of John Rutledge to succeed Chief Justice John Jay in 1795 because of Rutledge's opposition to the Jay Treaty [actually, Rutledge was a nut case who attempted suicide after the Senate rejected him.].

Schumer declared that a Supreme Court nomination was the most important thing that they would consider as Senators. "With the flick of a pen, they could change people's lives." [No one asked him if this was how it should or was intended to be.]

The transcript for ABC's This Week is not freely available. But, you can pay through the nose, here.

CNN'S LATE EDITION Reporter Suzanne Malveaux played the clip of Kennedy's tirade, recycled from the Robert Bork battle. Leahy wishes "everybody would relax a little bit and let the process play out."

Specter touted his record of voting for pro-life nominees. He said that Roe v. Wade is safe because Justice Kennedy voted with the majority in 1992's Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Specter accused Judge Robert Bork of having "original intent," and would have "segregated the Senate" into black on one side, whites on the other." Specter said that scholars liked his questioning of Bork and of Anita Hill, and that "history will vindicate me."

Judge Robert Bork was interviewed next. When asked about Specter's allegation regarding Bork and segregating the Senate, Bork replied, "I know Specter, and the truth is not in him."

Bork said "we've been having a cultural war in America" because the Supreme Court has "become a political institution." He called it a "political prize" over which the two sides fight. He said that if you stick to the original intent with the Constitution, you don't have to be a liberal or conservative. He said that the President owed the whole country a nominee who would stick to the original intent of the Constitution.

Whether you support or oppose abortion, "you ought to oppose Roe v. Wade," he explained. It's not in the constitution. His advice to the nominee: "Brace yourself, now what's going to come, and don't let it bother you."

Malveaux asked Bork about the verb "to bork." He said that it was "in the dictionaries," and means "to attack someone unfairly." He added: "To have your name become a verb is to achieve a certain measure of immortality." Malveaux told Bork that he was immortal.

The transcript from Late Edition is here.

This has been a lightly edited version of Mark Kilmer's full summary, which --- as I said --- is available at redstate.