Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 23, 1995                   TAG: 9506260027
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FOSTER'S LOSS, WARNER'S DISGRACE

Among the reasons why Foster's confirmation died:

The Republican Party's increasing indebtedness to the religious right.

The intrusion of presidential politics into the confirmation process.

A parliamentary maneuver cynically abused by a Senate minority.

In our view, the Nashville doctor deserved to be confirmed. During a distinguished career, he won from President Bush a "Point of Light" award for efforts to help prevent out-of-wedlock births. He would have made a strong spokesman for fighting teen pregnancy - a campaign around which all Americans might rally, whatever their beliefs about abortion.

Confusion generated by Foster and a sloppy White House over how many abortions he performed in his medical practice didn't help his case. But neither did it disqualify him. Indeed, Foster had the votes for confirmation in the GOP-controlled Senate, had the Senate been allowed to vote.

A filibuster threat thwarted the majority will.

Among those declaring victory, as a result, are anti-abortion activists and the Christian right. They would have opposed Foster's nomination no matter what - simply because, in a decades-long career as an obstretician, he had performed some abortions. Not only have the activists successfully imposed their litmus test; they've demonstrated who calls the shots in the GOP, at least where presidential politics is concerned.

Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, who led the filibuster threat, kept his flagging candidacy alive by following through on his pledge to block Foster at all cost.

But Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole was the one who really derailed the nomination. He continued his drive to win right-wing support by pressuring colleagues to vote for the filibuster, and by strategically delaying the vote on closing debate until it was clear the filibuster would succeed.

Clinton, meanwhile, would have gained whichever way the vote went. For once, he stuck with a nominee in trouble. Now, in the coming campaign, he can cite Foster's defeat as evidence of anti-abortionists' and religious conservatives' hold over the GOP.

As for Foster himself - he became a pawn of politics. He and his reputation were dispensable.

So, apparently, were considerations of fairness and proper procedure. A president traditionally is accorded some prerogative to fill his administration. The Senate is entitled to reject nominees. But, according to Republican Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont, no nominee favorably recommended by a Senate panel (as Foster was by the GOP-controlled Labor Committee) has ever before been denied a floor vote.

When Democrats controlled the Senate during the Reagan years, they gave up-or-down votes, without filibusters, to such controversial nominees as Clarence Thomas, Robert Bork, John Tower and James Watt. The increasing resort to filibusters in the 1990s, now extended to the Foster nomination, is seriously eroding majority rule.

Sixty senators were needed to make a decision on Foster. Only 57 came forward. Warner disgraced himself by voting for the filibuster.