Almond to chair effort on behalf of Bush nominee
The former governor decries “special-interest groups . . . trying to drum up opposition” to Supreme Court pick John G. Roberts.
Saturday, July 23, 2005
BY LIZ ANDERSON
Journal State House Bureau
PROVIDENCE — Former Gov. Lincoln Almond will chair a new Rhode Island-based coalition to champion the confirmation of Judge John G. Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The group’s mission, several members said, is to press the U.S. Senate to give Roberts a fair and timely hearing and an up-or-down vote.
Almond, reached by telephone at his summer home on Cape Cod, said he was recruited by his former director of legislative affairs, Denevan O’Connell, who knew of Almond’s concern that President Bush’s nominee could face a filibuster in the Senate.
“The filibuster has its place, but not with advise and consent,” said Almond, a former U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island.
“I think the president deserves to have a candidate confirmed who is well qualified, and I think a lot of the special-interest groups are out there trying to drum up opposition [to Roberts], and I just don’t think that’s appropriate,” the former governor added.
O’Connell’s government-relations firm — Gildea, O’Connell and Darlington — is being paid to serve as the local contact for Progress for America, a national conservative advocacy group that, according to media reports, expects to spend $18 million promoting Roberts’ candidacy for the high court.
But O’Connell said the new group, Rhode Islanders for Judge Roberts, was not a Progress for America affiliate and would not be receiving financial support from the national group or spending money on a local campaign.
He described the group instead as an “ad hoc” organization put together by a group of people, including former East Providence Senate candidate Lloyd Monroe, who have “overlapping goals” with his client.
Monroe, a Republican and former federal prosecutor, said the group was organized by “a small group of us who decided we wanted to support this nominee.”
“Obviously my involvement arises as a result of talking with other people who are attorneys, and who also have been involved in Republican Party stuff,” he said.
Monroe called Roberts an “exceptionally well-qualified candidate” who “personifies the qualities the American people deserve in a Supreme Court [justice].”
The Rhode Island group, he said, plans to release a list of members soon; Monroe said his hope was to show broad and bipartisan support. He said the steering committee would also include lawyers Eugene Bernardo II, Thomas Wigand and Joseph White, besides himself and Almond.
Bernardo told reporters in an afternoon conference call that he believed the confirmation process should focus on a candidate’s legal intellect, fairness, integrity, temperament, and ability to impartially apply the law.
He said his concern was that Roberts would get caught in “a pernicious rush to demonize whoever the nominee is, for whatever reasons.”
But Almond said that what activities the group would undertake would depend on how Roberts’ candidacy proceeds. Right now, he said, there are indications that the nomination may not face strong Senate opposition.
Meanwhile, another Rhode Island group formed to watch the Supreme Court nomination process — Rhode Islanders for a Fair Judiciary — is warily evaluating the president’s choice.
“We are extremely concerned about the nominee,” said Marti Rosenberg. But she said the group, a coalition of more than 20 advocacy organizations, was still researching Roberts’ background.
“We hope the senators ask the tough questions that really really need to be asked and pursue them until they get the answers,” Rosenberg said.
At least one Rhode Island group in the coalition has formally opposed Roberts’ nomination. The local chapter of the National Organization of Women this week called Roberts “an extremist with no commitment to the basic values of individual and civil rights for which we have fought so hard.”