Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, predicts few problems for Supreme Court nominee Stephen Breyer when his confirmation hearings begin on Tuesday.
And Hatch - ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee - said any rough water that does come may likely be stirred more by Democrats, because the GOP has already achieved most of what it hoped for with this nomination."Breyer is a moderate," Hatch said. "Who in their right mind thought this president would appoint two moderates? But he has," he said referring also to President Clinton's nomination last year of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Hatch was a key to the nomination of both Breyer and Ginsburg.
Many credit him with helping block the nomination of the much more liberal Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt - whom the White House had twice depicted as the front-runner for vacancies.
Hatch acknowledges that he warned President Clinton that if Babbitt were nominated, he would face a bloody confirmation fight with Republicans who worry his record in office shows he would try to legislate from the bench.
Clinton - who already has a full plate handling battles for reform of health care, personal scandals and volatile foreign affairs - avoided extra fights by selecting moderates.
"I don't see any major problems for Judge Breyer, but it may be too early to tell," Hatch said in an interview. "I don't see any problems that would stop his nomination, although they might cost a few votes."
Among those is a "Zoe Baird" problem where Breyer originally failed to pay Social Security taxes for a domestic, but later paid them. The problem was known before his nomi-na-tion.
"I don't think that's a big issue anymore," said Hatch, who also defended attorney general nominee Baird when she was found to have the same problem, which sank her nomination among Democrats. "I don't think that was ever that big of a deal - although I was criticized for it."
Also, Hatch expects Breyer will be grilled about extravagant costs of a new federal courts building, for which he headed a recommendations committee. "It's a concern, but those things happen, and I don't expect it to stop his nomination."
Hatch said he expects a few senators to grill Breyer because they don't agree with his record, because it is either too liberal or too conservative in their eyes.
"I expect that you will see a lot of questions by (liberal Sen. Howard) Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) and (Sen. Arlen) Specter (R-Pa.)," Hatch said.
For himself, Hatch said he feels confident that Breyer "is a distinguished judge who has the intellect, character and temperament to serve well" although "I don't expect I will ever fully agree with any nominee by a Democratic pres-i-dent."
But he also plans to question Breyer closely for the record about "judicial activism."
"We need judges who respect the role of the legislative branch, who will interpret laws and not legislate from the bench to substitute their own policy preferences," Hatch said.
He adds that from what he has seen of Breyer's record, "he comes through fairly well with regard to that."
Even though Hatch foresees relatively few problems for Breyer, he says that doesn't mean the hearings will be quick.
"We have 18 senators on the committee now," he said. "This is the only time they really have to get their ideas across on these matters" - so he expects opening statements and questions to take time.
Hatch was also pleased with a recent New York Newsday story that found Ginsburg, last year's nominee, "in the dead middle of a generally conservative" bench during her first year on the Supreme Court.
"I don't want to say I told you so, but I'm really not surprised," Hatch said, noting many thought she would be more liberal and that she might have been only masquerading as a moderate.
"Thus far, I am very pleased with Justice Ginsburg," Hatch said. And he says he hopes to say the same about Breyer in another year.