Maine as tipping point? (continued)
	Contacting Snowe and Collins Olympia Snowe: www.snowe.senate.gov Washington, DC, office phone: 800.432.1599 or 202.224.5344 Fax: 202.224.1946 Snail Mail: 154 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510-1903 Susan Collins: www.collins.senate.gov Washington, DC, office phone: 202.224.2523 Fax: 202.224.2693 Snail Mail: 461 Dirkson Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510

The "gang" was formed in the first place to effectively nix what was called the "nuclear option." Many of the President’s appointments to the lower circuit courts rubbed Dem senators the wrong way. But they knew they didn’t have the majority votes to straight out vote these nominees down. So they filibustered, which is the centuries-old tradition of speaking non-stop on the senate floor to prevent a senate vote on a controversial issue. Republicans wanted to get rid of the filibuster and were on the verge of a vote which would do just that. Because it would have changed the rules of the senate and blown everything out of whack, it was called the "nuclear option." The nuclear option, while possibly good for Republicans in the short term, freaked out some senators with affection for the established rules of the senate. These 14 senators who were freaking out joined together informally and struck a deal. Dems would agree to quit filibustering three of Bush’s nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, William Pryor, and Priscilla Owen) and, in exchange, the Reps would chuck the nuclear option, for now. In a written agreement, the "Memorandum of Understanding on Judicial Nominations," the Gang of 14 wrote that future "nominees should only be filibustered under extraordinary circumstances."

So why should Maine care about the Gang of 14? Well, "extraordinary circumstances" for Dems might be just around the corner depending on what senators learn about Roberts. And if the Dems in the Gang see "extraordinary circumstances" and join all the other Dem senators to filibuster, the Republicans in the gang will have to decide whether to dissolve the agreement and revisit the nuclear option or to allow the filibuster to block Roberts. So far, there hasn’t been any talk of a filibuster, but, then again, not much is known about Roberts yet.

"I think most folks would agree that the [Gang of 14] either together or in parts will be pretty pivotal in what happens in the senate," says Sarah Binder, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan research center in Washington, DC. With two senators in the gang, "it’s clearly going to increase the likelihood that you see all that advertising raining down on the state of Maine which you normally might not see."

Whether liberals will fight Roberts as fiercely as they may have a blatantly extremist nominee remains to be seen, but the money and membership numbers of national groups suggests the media battle could well drag on through the confirmation hearing this coming fall. According to Brandzel, MoveOn has already raised some $400,000 from its members for the SCOTUS fight. MoveOn has activated several grassroots groups in Maine following the nomination, and staged a petition drive in Tommy’s Park in Portland on July 21.

Brandzel says the group will organize rallies, letter-writing campaigns, meetings with the senators, and email petitions as its opposition to Roberts continues. The liberal group People for the American Way, which has a self-described "war room" for the SCOTUS fight set up in Washington, DC, is mobilizing its 750,000 members and encouraging them to call senators in battleground states like Maine and Nebraska. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which boasts 75,000 members, has launched an email campaign opposing Roberts. Other groups, including the Alliance for Justice, the AFL-CIO, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights are mobilizing.

Meanwhile, conservative groups like Progress for America (with their multi-million dollar campaign), the Family Research Council, and Focus on the Family endorse Roberts and encourage senators to support an up or down vote — which, in a Republican-controlled senate, would most likely mean Roberts’s confirmation.

Lisa Roche, Executive Director of Maine Right to Life, has coordinated an email campaign to the group’s 1300 members in support of Roberts. Roche says national conservative groups like Progress for America and Focus on the Family have promised her grants and research assistant to bolster her grassroots campaign for Roberts.

"Maine has become a targeted state because our senators have been not always in support of the president’s decisions when it comes to life issues," she says.

Roche says she’s pretty sure that both Snowe and Collins will vote in Roberts’s favor, so Maine Right to Life isn’t going to push as hard for Roberts as they would against what she terms a "liberal candidate," but the group is still encouraging members to educate themselves and others about Roberts.

"I’m not concerned about Collins at all," says Roche of the junior senator’s SCOTUS vote. "She made it clear when she spoke on Ray Richardson’s radio show last week [that she would support Roberts]. Senator Snowe — there isn’t anything as definite as Senator Collins’s statement, but I think the fact that [Collins] is in the group of 14 that they put together during filibuster time, if she’s on that committee and if she’s in support of him, I’m really not concerned about Senator Snowe. I think if Senator Snowe is going to vote against him, she would have come out with a very clear, strong statement sending that signal right now."

It is possible that Snowe and Collins could split their vote. Recently, Collins has publicly praised Roberts while Snowe has been virtually mum, and if it comes down to an abortion-rights battle, it may be telling that Planned Parenthood gives Snowe a 100-percent rating on the issue, Collins only 88-percent.

It is 8:50 am on a recent Tuesday and talk on Ray Richardson’s conservative radio show, the WLOB Morning News with Ray Richardson (and Ted Talbot), has turned again to Judge John Roberts and the Supreme Court. Richardson’s show, produced in Portland and broadcast throughout much of the state, New Hampshire, and Vermont, has become somewhat of a conservative lightning rod for issues surrounding the SCOTUS vacancy and now Roberts’s nomination. Since May, Richardson (also known here as "The Big Talker") has conducted a daily judicial update segment in which he discusses the nuclear option, the vacancy, and Roberts with national heavy-hitters: Both Maine’s senators have been interviewed for this segment. Former Presidential candidate Steve Forbes is a regular. Even Vice President Dick Cheney has appeared.

Richardson’s popular morning show is just one product of this self-described "opinionated" guy — he also writes a regular (conservative) column for the Independent, he founded the group "Citizens for a Strong Maine Economy" and lately he’s taken up the SCOTUS banner for Maine conservatives. Over the weekend of July 23, Richardson launched www.isupportjudgeroberts.com. Already, 24 people have used the site’s email template to notify Snowe and Collins of their support for Roberts. Richardson hopes eventually to email all of his 22,000 fans and friends (most of whom are Mainers) to encourage them to log on and drop the senators a line.

"There’s going to be a lot of liberals out there working against this guy and I wanted to make sure there’s a conservative balance to support him," says Richardson of the site. "I want to make sure to show [Collins and Snowe] there’s a real constituency supporting him."

Both Richardson and Talbot have been advocating for months for an up and down vote on whoever the president nominates, and have only amped up their argument with the nomination of Roberts, who they believe will be easily confirmed. This morning, they have a guest in the small studio on Warren Avenue, someone who lends an interesting take on the SCOTUS vacancy. His name’s Brent Bowen. He’s 17, the founder of the Teenage Republicans club at Lewiston High School, and whoever the Senate approves will probably cast votes over much of his young life.

"It’s going to be your Supreme Court for the future!" thunders Talbot.

Bowen grins.

"And you want there to be strict interpretation of the Constitution, that’s what you want!"

Bowen nods. He leans forward on his stool to speak into his microphone.

"This guy is on our side, he will be on our side and we’re going to take the Supreme Court," he says.

And that’s just what Sarah Standiford is worried about. Standiford, Executive Director of the Maine Women’s Lobby and the Maine Women’s Policy Center, is deeply concerned about Roberts. In January 2004, Standiford formed the "Fair and Independent Federal Courts Coalition," with 40 member groups representing some 100,000 Mainers. Coalition members include Common Cause, the Disability Rights Center of Maine, the League of Pissed Off Voters, Sierra Club Maine, Maine Choice Coalition, NAACP Portland, and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. The goal of the coalition was originally to research and organize in opposition to Bush’s circuit court appointees. But with the Roberts nomination, the coalition has set its sights on the Supreme Court.

While Standiford says neither the Women’s Lobby nor the coalition has taken a stand on Roberts one way or the other (she says they don’t know enough about him yet), she’s adamant that he in no way is a "consensus nominee."

"While we don’t have enough information on his record or his commitment to upholding individual rights, we do know there are a lot of questions that need to be answered," she says. "The president missed an opportunity. It was clear that he could make best use of the opportunity by nominating someone who could be widely supported and was chosen after broad and meaningful consultation. It appears that he did not do that. Instead, he chose someone who raises a lot of questions."

Standiford says the senators have a history of moderation within the Republican party which makes them prime targets for advocacy groups like those in the coalition. And she believes their role in the Gang of 14 continues their tradition of independence and underscores the importance of Maine’s senate vote in the Supreme Court debate.

"[The Gang of 14] demonstrates their leadership and the impact they can have at the national level," she says. "And it’s a great tradition in Maine of strong, moderate women leaders who play a critical role in these national conversations."

Confirmation hearings for Roberts are expected to begin after Labor Day, when the Senate returns from its summer break. Hearings since 1981, when O’Connor was confirmed, have lasted between 12 days and 51 days. Thirty days or less seems to be the President’s goal for Roberts’s confirmation hearings as he has made it clear he would like an appointment by October.

Sara Donnelly can be reached at sdonnelly@phx.com