The question of the courts.

• Author: Bresler, Robert J.
• Position: State Of The Nation - Re-election of George W. Bush and the politics of judicial appointments

WHETHER THIS PARTICULAR PRESIDENTIAL election will be historic will be decided in the fullness of time. Success, particularly the electoral variety, merely is an opportunity. A victory in one election can disappear with the next. Karl Rove's dream of a new governing majority will depend on what Pres. George W. Bush and the Republican Congress make of this opportunity.

Can the President claim a mandate? Bush's margin of victory does not come close to the landslides of Richard Nixon in 1972 or Ronald Reagan in 1984; nor was it even as large as his father's margin in both the popular vote and electoral college in 1988. There is, however, one major difference between Bush's triumph in 2004 and those of his Republican predecessors. Unlike Nixon, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush--Bush has brought with him Republican majorities in the Senate and House. This gives him a chance to put a footprint on the future of American politics.

He can set the table for any future Democratic administration, limiting their options and their capacity to expand the role of the Federal government. This can be accomplished by shaping the character of the judiciary; altering the nature and dimension of tax policy; and reforming the Social Security system. For now, let us content ourselves with the courts.

The next round of the culture wars will be fought over appointments to the Federal court--especially the Supreme Court. Liberal victories concerning abortion, gay rights, affirmative action, and public expression of religious faith all have occurred in the courts, not in Congress or the state legislatures. Liberal interest groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the People for the American Way exercise considerable clout with many Senate Democrats. Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.), Patrick Leahy (D.-Vt.), and Ted Kennedy (D.-Mass.), all of whom sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, are in high dudgeon when the President sends the name of any court nominee with a whiff of judicial conservatism.

Even when these nominees got through the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Tom Daschle, the Democratic Minority Leader (now defeated), and his colleagues would resort to a filibuster, which requires 60 votes to break. Thus, in Congress' last session, they blocked the confirmation of 10 highly qualified nominees to the Federal Appeals Court who surely would have been confirmed had the Senate been allowed to vote on them. In the new 109th Congress, the Republicans will have 55 votes in...