‘Gang of 14’ huddles in Pryor’s office over Bush pick for bench
Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006
WASHINGTON — The Senate’s “Gang of 14” met Thursday to talk about William J. Haynes II, President Bush’s nominee to the 4 th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Haynes, Pentagon general counsel, helped formulate the administration’s policy on torture of suspected terrorists who are being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In particular, Haynes authored a memo that suggested it would be legal to subject some al-Qaida prisoners to “cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment.”
After the meeting, which was held in his office, Arkansas’ Sen. Mark Pryor said he thinks Haynes’ nomination will be thwarted without the filibuster that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has suggested.
Haynes’ nomination is being questioned by Republicans as well as Democrats.
Pryor, a Democrat, was instrumental last year in organizing seven Democratic and seven Republican moderates into what became known as the Gang of 14.
The group averted a crisis over judicial nominations when Republican Senate leaders were threatening to use their majority to force through a rules change prohibiting filibusters of judicial nominees. Democrats responded to that threat by vowing to use procedural techniques to shut down the Senate.
To prevent such a showdown in the Senate, Pryor and other Gang of 14 members promised to resist filibusters of judicial nominees under all but “extraordinary circumstances.”
Almost all members attended Thursday’s 30-minute, closed meeting.
Asked afterward if Haynes ’ sanctioning of torture techniques would rise to the level of extraordinary circumstances, Pryor said he had not yet made that determination.
He said he wanted to wait until the Senate Judiciary Committee completes its hearings.
But Pryor said there are enough doubts about Haynes among even Republican senators that Haynes is not likely to be confirmed on the Senate floor, regardless of whether the nomination gets out of committee.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Republican member of the Gang of 14, was especially tough on Haynes during a committee hearing Tuesday.
“He is facing a lot of difficulty,” Pryor said of Haynes. “My sense is the White House doesn’t have the votes on the Senate floor.”
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