Not a lot of analysis here, just a personal reflection. In the fall of 1990 I was fresh out of law school and had been Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution, for less than a year.
My boss was the very authentic, old-fashioned, country liberal from Illinois, Senator Paul Simon. As a partisan, I was deeply suspicious of the nomination from the first President Bush. I had worked on the Dukakis campaign and I'm sure I held a grudge. In my memory, the White House was giving conservatives all kinds of signals that they could trust Souter, and I remember thinking that there must have been some kind of private assurances given that Souter was more conservative than he could be shown to be, especially on the subject of abortion/choice.
One exchange from the confirmation hearings I remember in particular. Senator Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio was pressing Souter hard on the abortion issue, and Souter delivered a response that had clearly been prepared very carefully. He told a story about a friend in college who had found herself pregnant, and who had come to Souter for advice. So he paints this picture that shows great empathy for the circumstances his friend was in, but the bottom line was, of course, what advice did he give?
And Souter says, something like (I'm sure someone can find this in the transcript): "Senator, I'm not going to reveal what we said, and I'm sure you will respect the privacy of that conversation."
It looked to me at the time like a huge dodge. And it worked! Metzenbaum was nonplussed, which was not an easy thing to do, and we couldn't gain any additional traction on the issue. I was a callow 28-year-old, and I was sure he had just made the whole thing up to feign sympathy for women.
Of course, we all know how things ended up. It was conservatives and pro-lifers who felt betrayed, and liberals and pro-choicers who were pleasantly surprised. Souter's story was a calculated hedge that worked in both directions. I still don't know if it was true.
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Thanks for the anecdote.
"great empathy for the circumstances"
Sounds similar to what Obama said the other day about what he's looking for in a new Justice.
It reminds me how Obama wants congress to pass a bill putting a handgun in every delivery room.
You worked for both Paul Simon and Michael Dukakis.
Surely you must see a need to recuse yourself from political discussions.
I am going to assume that is hyperbole.
Yeah, I joined the Dukakis campaign in September when he was 12 points ahead in the poll. It's basically my fault we lost.
But if ineptitude were cause to recuse oneself from political talk, there would be few qualified bloggers…
Ouch…
I'll (groan) shut up if you (gasp) will.
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