Roberts picks up Democratic support

WASHINGTON -- Chief justice-nominee John Roberts, his confirmation secure, picked up support from fractured Senate Democrats Wednesday as President Bush met lawmakers to discuss a second vacancy on the Supreme Court.\nThe Senate Judiciary Committee's senior Democrat, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, announced his endorsement shortly after leaving the White House. That guaranteed bipartisan backing for Roberts in Thursday's scheduled vote by the committee.\nBut Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, liberal stalwart Edward Kennedy, former presidential candidate John Kerry and New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Jon Corzine all are opposing Roberts. Their stand is evidence of the split among the Senate's 44 Democrats about whether they can or should mount even symbolic opposition to the successor of the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.\nBecause Republicans control the Senate and the committee, majority support was assured for the vote and for confirmation next week in the full Senate.\nSome of the Democrats' liberal supporters hoped a strong vote against Roberts would signal to Bush that if he were to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor with a far-right conservative, it would lead to a bigger fight in the Senate.\nLeahy, who has led filibuster fights against Bush's lower court nominees, said in a Senate speech, "I do not intend to lend my support to an effort by this president to move the Supreme Court and the law radically to the right."\nBut Roberts "is a man of integrity," said Leahy, who told Roberts over the telephone about his decision. "I can only take him at his word that he does not have an ideological agenda."\nOther Democrats, including Sens. Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Max Baucus of Montana, have also announced their support. Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana are leaning toward voting for Roberts. Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota is viewed as a possible vote for him, as well.\nRoberts is "very well credentialed," Landrieu said Wednesday.\nThe other six Judiciary Democrats -- Joseph Biden, Herb Kohl, Charles Schumer, Dick Durbin, Russell Feingold and Dianne Feinstein -- have not announced their votes.\nDurbin and Schumer were confronted by television producer Norman Lear and other major party supporters during a trip to the West Coast over the weekend, according to party officials familiar with the conversation.\nThese Democratic supporters are strongly opposed to Roberts.