Inside Politics

Little enthusiasm

Some Senate Republicans favor giving taxpayers $100 rebate checks as some relief from high gasoline prices, butSenate Majority Leader Bill Frist says the idea is not generating much enthusiasm among the public.

“The issue … doesn’t seem to have the support that had been anticipated,” the Tennessee Republican said in an interview yesterday with Scripps Howard News Service.

Mr. Frist said he likes the idea because “a lot of people” could use help paying for gasoline. The $100 figure was chosen, he said, because that is what the average driver pays in federal gasoline taxes over nine months.

The Senate’s top Republican also blamed former President Bill Clinton in part for high gasoline prices, saying Mr. Clinton 10 years ago vetoed legislation to allow drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. That extra supply of oil would have resulted in lower gasoline prices today, Mr. Frist said.

Back to old tricks

“The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote [this] morning on President Bush’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the D.C. Circuit. The eight Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote en bloc against Kavanaugh’s nomination. With the support of all 10 Republicans on the committee, Kavanaugh should be favorably reported to the Senate floor by a 10 to 8 party-line vote,” Edward Whelan writes at National Review Online (www.nationalreview.com).

“Democrats will then try to translate their own unprincipled and partisan opposition to Kavanaugh into the charge that Kavanaugh himself is somehow too partisan. But they have no evidence to support this charge — and a long tradition to defy. Unhinged by their own frenzied hostility to President Bush and former independent counsel Ken Starr, the Democrats, supposed champions of public service, will really be punishing Kavanaugh for his highly commendable record of public service,” said Mr. Whelan, who is president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

“Nominated to the D.C. Circuit nearly three years ago, Kavanaugh, now 41, has a remarkable breadth of experience that few judicial nominees could match. Among other things, he has been a Supreme Court clerk [to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy], has devoted more than 10 years to federal government service, has served in a senior position in the executive branch, has been a partner in a major national law firm, and has argued cases in the Supreme Court and court of appeals.

“In his various jobs, he has earned the admiration of people across the political spectrum who have worked with him … That’s part of the reason that all 42 members of three different incarnations of the American Bar Association Committee on the Federal Judiciary have rated him ‘well qualified’ or ‘qualified’ for the D.C. Circuit seat.”

Mr. Whelan added: “Senate Democrats are demonstrating by their conduct that they are too partisan even to treat nominees like Kavanaugh with basic decency and fairness. If they filibuster Kavanaugh’s nomination, the duty of Senate Republicans to reform the Senate’s cloture rules to prevent irresponsible filibusters of judicial nominees will be clear.”

Romney’s plan

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, often questioned about how his Mormon religion would affect a potential run for the Republican presidential nomination, said yesterday he envisions mimicking John F. Kennedy and explaining his religion to the public.

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