Tuesday, July 12, 2005 | 11:05 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., walked away from a White House meeting with President Bush today without a short list of Bush's favorite potential nominees for the Supreme Court.
"A lot of names" were discussed in a meeting that included three other leading senators, but Bush didn't indicate which were his top choices, Reid told reporters.
Bush "was very much in a listening mode," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.
Democrats have goaded Bush to consult with them about potential nominees, and Reid has credited Bush for making initial efforts to reach out to them. Bush spoke to the Democratic leader by telephone on July 1, the day Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement. White House officials say they have now contacted 60 senators to seek some input.
"I feel comfortable and good that we are going to be able to have someone who is a consensus candidate," Reid said today.
Reid joined Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.; Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa.; and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the top Democrat on the judiciary committee, at the breakfast meeting today designed by the White House to build bridges in the early stages of the nomination process.
"I think we are at a time in this country's history where we have had nothing but discussion and debate and contention on judges," Reid said. "Sen. Frist and I want to avoid that" with the upcoming Supreme Court nominee.
Reid on Monday had told reporters, "I'm ready to start talking names."
But few expected that Bush would tell the senators today who was at the top of his list. Some Republican aides have said Democrats would give the names to liberal activist groups who would gear up campaigns against the candidate.
Reid and his Senate colleagues are the focus of intense attention in Washington as a battle over the nominee looms.
The Nevada Democrat over the weekend advised Bush to ignore the "radical right" activists who are lobbying him to choose an extreme conservative. Both liberal and conservative activist groups have already launched fierce public relations campaigns to influence the White House and Senate.
"We need an independent thinker who will follow the Constitution, not a knee-jerk conservative crusader who will march in lock-step to the tune of partisan pressure groups," Reid said Saturday, giving the Democratic response to Bush's weekly radio address.
Democrats have sought to protect their right to block nominees with a filibuster, drawing the ire of Republicans who say all nominees deserve an up-or-down vote. In an agreement struck by seven Democratic and seven Republican senators May 23, Democrats agreed not to filibuster judicial nominees except in "extraordinary circumstances," which has not been precisely defined.
It's not clear whether Democrats would filibuster a nominee simply because they believed the nominee was far too conservative, or if it would take more than that to meet the "extraordinary circumstance" test.
"He's not ruling that out," Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said of the use of a filibuster against a Supreme Court nominee.
But Reid, so far, is not expecting that a filibuster would be necessary because the White House appears to be searching for a conservative that Democrats could accept, Hafen said.
Reid said, "I'm not going to shy away from making sure that we have adequate time to explain our position if the president doesn't follow through on a consensus" nominee.
Bush and the senators in their meeting generally agreed that their goal was to have a new justice sworn in by October, when the new court session begins, the senators said.
Reid said he hoped that Bush would name a nominee in the next "couple of weeks."
Frist today emphasized that Bush was "reaching out aggressively" to Senate Democrats.
Frist also issued a warning of sorts to Democrats: "We expect a process in the United States Senate that is fair, treats the nominee with dignity and respect, and will be conducted in a timely way."
Specter scolded activist groups that intend to spend millions of dollars in warring campaigns over a nominee, calling it "insulting" to suggest it would sway senators.
"The word ought to go out that the special interest groups vastly overstate their influence," Specter said.
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