Confirmation Battle Looms

President Bush voiced confidence Wednesday that Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts will get "a timely hearing, a fair hearing" on Capitol Hill.

Joined by Roberts outside the White House after a private breakfast meeting, Mr. Bush told reporters, "We will push the process forward." He said both he and Roberts believe he should be sworn before the new court term begins in October.

Roberts then headed to Capitol Hill for meetings with leaders in the Senate, which will decide whether he will replace Sandra Day O'Connor and thus become the first new Supreme Court member in more than a decade.

Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who will help Roberts through the grueling confirmation process, told CBS News' The Early Show that Roberts is "one of the most qualified nominees in the history of Supreme Court nominees and in the history of our country."

Thompson said the president and his staff have talked to "over 70 senators and seriously considered the comments that they had and suggestions that they made. We'll continue that today."

Reaction from Republicans was overwhelmingly supportive.

Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee called for confirmation proceedings that "treat Judge Roberts with dignity and respect" and lead to a yes or no vote before the court's term begins Oct 3.

Democrats reacted more cautiously, but there were no instant predictions of a filibuster.

"The president has chosen someone with suitable legal credentials, but that is not the end of our inquiry," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the only woman on the Senate Judiciary Committee that will hold hearings on the nomination, said the new justice will be critical to the balance of the court, especially when it rules on cases involving congressional authority, a woman's right to privacy and environmental protections.

"I will keep my powder dry until the due diligence is completed," Feinstein said.

Roberts' Republican credentials are well established, reports CBS News Correspondent Joie Chen He was an assistant legal counsel for President Reagan, deputy solicitor general in President George H.W. Bush's administration, and was appointed to the D.C. Appeals Court by the current president just two years ago.

President Bush also liked Roberts' personal story. Born in Buffalo, he worked in a steel mill to pay his way through Harvard, was a top graduate of Harvard Law, then served as current Chief Justice William Rehnquist's law clerk.

During his legal career, he argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court.

"I always got a lump in my throat whenever I walk up those marble steps to argue a case before the court, and I don't think it was just from nerves," Roberts said at the White House Tuesday night.

He will now have to steel his nerves for what could become a tough confirmation fight.

Abortion rights activists quickly fired off a sharp "no" vote, saying that when he was in the Justice Department, Roberts worked to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling.

But Democrats are mostly holding their fire, saying they want to look carefully at the nominee's record.

"Basically I'll concede the fact that he's an honest man with good legal credentials who has a good temperament by all the accounts that I've read," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who voted against Roberts' confirmation to his appeals court position.

"But you have to get down to the basics," Durbin told The Early Show. "Is he in the mainstream on American values on issues like civil rights, workers' rights, protecting the environment? I have an obligation to ask those questions because Americans look to the Supreme Court as the last stop in our government when it comes to our rights and liberties."

Conservative interest groups were elated, saying the president kept a campaign promise to nominate someone akin to conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia. Liberal groups, meanwhile, expressed concerns about Roberts' views on abortion, religious freedom, environmental protections and the First Amendment.

Tony Perkins of the conservative Family Research Council said, "There's no doubt there will be a battle. There's no question about that. But I think it's one that can be won and I think it's one that will be won."

Liberal advocacy groups like the People for the American Way immediately began challenging Roberts' judicial views.

The group sent out "emergency alerts" to more than 400,000 supporters, telling them to contact their senators posthaste and ask them to withhold judgment on Roberts until after the confirmation hearings are completed.

"He is going to be questioned about his record in environmental and civil rights cases and about the clients he had while he was a million-dollar-a-year attorney in private practice just before he got his current job as a judge," said CBS News Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen. "He is going to be hammered about the controversial positions he took as part of the Solicitor General's office, too."

Just last week, Roberts was part of the unanimous three-judge panel that put the Bush administration's military tribunals in the war on terror back on track, clearing the way for the Pentagon to resume trials for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

It is abortion, however, that swiftly emerged as a point of contention.

The National Organization for Women planned an emergency demonstration against Roberts on Wednesday on Capitol Hill. "We refuse to allow Roberts, who is such a stealth opponent of women's rights, pass the Senate confirmation process," NOW President Kim Gandy said. "George W. Bush just guaranteed the fight of his political career with this nomination."

The abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America cited a brief Roberts filed with the Supreme Court while serving as deputy solicitor general in the first Bush administration. In the brief, Roberts said Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that established a woman's right to abortion, "was wrongly decided and should be overruled."

In his defense, Roberts told senators during 2003 confirmation hearings to his current post that he would be guided by legal precedent. "Roe v. Wade is the settled law of the land. ... There is nothing in my personal views that would prevent me from fully and faithfully applying that precedent."