The Olson Showdown
The Senate Judiciary Committee gets ready to fight.

May 15, 2001 4:55 p.m.

he Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked today on the nomination of Theodore Olson to be Solicitor General.All nine committee Republicans voted in favor of the Olson nomination while all nine Democrats voted against it. Under the power-sharing agreement created to deal with the 50-50 deadlock in the Senate, the tie vote means that the matter will be referred to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott for consideration by the full Senate. This is the first time there has been such a deadlock under the new arrangement.

Ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy continued his criticism of Olson at today's meeting, suggesting that Olson "was playing word games" in his testimony about the "Arkansas Project," the enterprise in which conservative philanthropist Richard Mellon Scaife teamed up with the American Spectator magazine to investigate Bill Clinton's past. "Mr. Olson has modified his answers over time, his recollection has changed, and he has conceded additional knowledge and involvement [in the project]," Leahy said.

Leahy was joined by other Democrats including Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold, who had previously been the lone Democratic vote in favor of the nomination of John Ashcroft to be Attorney General. Regarding Olson, Feingold said he believed that the Solicitor General candidate "was not forthcoming in his testimony."

After the vote, a visibly frustrated committee chairman Orrin Hatch said the matter would be sent to the majority leader to break the tie. "Who the hell cares about the Arkansas Project anymore?" Hatch asked his Democratic colleagues.

It's unclear what level of opposition the Olson nomination will generate in the full Senate. Forty-two Democratic senators voted against the Ashcroft nomination, and recently 43 Democratic senators voted against the nomination of John Bolton to a state-department position. It seems likely that the Olson nomination will follow a similar path.

Hatch would not predict when the Olson vote will occur. Asked what he believes Democrats plan to do, Hatch told reporters after the meeting, "Who knows what lurks in the deep, hidden recesses of the Democrats' hearts?" Asked whether Republicans would have Vice President Dick Cheney on hand for the full Senate vote on Olson, Hatch said, "You can bet your bottom dollar on that, if that's what it takes."