White House court pick clears Senate hurdle

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate cleared the way on
Thursday for a vote to confirm White House aide Brett Kavanaugh
as a federal appeals court judge despite concerns by some
Democrats that he was too partisan and not experienced.

The U.S. Senate voted 67 to 30 to take up his nomination to
the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia. The vote
could occur Friday before the Senate adjourns for a weeklong
break.

Many Democrats oppose the nomination of Kavanaugh, 41, who
has worked as a lawyer in the White House since 2001, and
before that helped investigate President Bill Clinton’s
relationship with Monica Lewinsky. But they could not muster
the 60 votes needed to block him.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said
President George W. Bush had a right to nominate judicial
candidates who share his outlook.

“It is hardly a surprise that Brett Kavanaugh is close to
the president, because the president selects people in whom he
has confidence and people who share his approach to
jurisprudence,” the Pennsylvania Republican said.

Republican activists hope the White House can fill vacant
court seats with conservatives as a way to motivate the party’s
core voters ahead of the November congressional elections.

But Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee
Republican, has been reluctant to rekindle a partisan standoff
over courts that nearly immobilized the Senate last year, and
has not set votes for other more controversial nominees.

“We seem to be back on an even keel. That’s why I want to
take the nominations one at a time,” Frist said on Monday.

Democrats have called for one of those nominees, District
Court Judge Terrence Boyle, to withdraw his nomination
following news reports that he held stock in several companies
that appeared before him in court, a potential violation
federal ethics law.

The White House has continued to support Boyle, and 14 of
his former law clerks have urged the Senate to vote.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of 14
moderate senators who have the power to block nominees or allow
them to go forward, declined to say whether he supported Boyle
or another controversial nominee, Pentagon General Counsel
William Haynes.

“We’ll take ‘em one at a time,” Graham said.