Ed Gillespie: ‘Roberts Made Us Proud’

CBN.com – Following the Senate Confirmation Hearings, David Brody spoke with Ed Gillespie, the President's coordinator for Supreme Court nominees, on how he thought John Roberts presented himself during the proceedings.

DAVID BRODY: Did he say anything to you after the hearing? Like it's over?

ED GILLESPIE: He said 'how did you think it went?' and I said, 'Judge I don't think it could have gone better. You made us all proud and so we'll see how the votes go.'

BRODY: Tell me a little bit about vote count here. Do you expect this to be a straight party line 10-8 vote here?

GILLESPIE: Well, it's hard to say. He was so obviously so impressive. If senators follow past approaches to nominees to the court, and they vote based on is the person intellectually and ethically and temperamentally qualified to serve on the Supreme Court, I think it'll be a unanimous vote- and that's what happened in the case of Justice Ginsberg and Justice Scalia. But I have noticed some democrats seem intent on enforcing a new standard, which is to say regardless of whether or not the person is intellectually and temperamentally and ethically qualified, we may vote against him because we don't approve of or we don't support the President who nominated him. And I think that would be an unfortunate standard to politicize the Supreme Court confirmation process that way because obviously if they set that standard now it's likely to go on for decades.

BRODY: What kind of standard is he setting here? I mean, the bar is pretty high for a who knows, Priscilla Owen, a Janice Rogers Brown. Goodness gracious, I feel sorry for the next person who comes along.

GILLESPIE: Well, I think the standard he set is one that has actually been set by every sitting justice. Which is to say judge Roberts was right to draw a line, to comment on cases that in the past that are not likely to come before the court again but to say on issues that are going to come before the court again, ‘I'm not going to comment on those.’

BRODY: From an anxiety level, we see you sitting back there on C-SPAN. What's the worst case scenario for you? Are you going through in your mind what are they going to ask next?

GILLESPIE: You are and I have to say, regardless of what they ask next, I always had confidence that Judge Roberts would always have an appropriate answer because he is brilliant. But I also have to say that in the course of the preparation for these hearings in getting to know him all of us, those of us at the White House and Justice Department who have been working with Judge Roberts, I have to tell you that our commitment to his confirmation goes beyond a professional one at this point. He is someone who commands a lot of loyalty and affection from the people around him because he is truly a good man, and a caring father, and devoted husband, and someone who was very kind to us in this process more so than he frankly needed to be. So we're rooting for him personally as well as professionally at this point.

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