'Gang Of 14' Split On Alito?

A group of centrist senators who halted a previous filibuster fight met Thursday to discuss plans for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, but at least two of the group's Republicans say their decision is already made: no filibuster.

"I don't believe that, with all sincerity, I could let that happen," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said after meeting with Alito, the federal appeals court judge President Bush has nominated to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Graham and fellow Republican Mike DeWine of Ohio took their anti-filibuster message to the other members of the so-called Gang of 14 on Thursday. But the group's Democrats were urging them to withhold judgment, saying Alito has been the nominee only since Monday.

Why is this casual grouping of senators so important to Alito's chances? It's a matter of mathematics, CBS News correspondent Dan Raviv reports. The only way the minority Democrats can prevent Alito from being confirmed would be to filibuster; and these 14 moderates – seven from each party – agreed filibusters would be used only in "extraordinary circumstances."

The defection of even two members of the group would virtually ensure that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., would win a filibuster showdown.

"The truth of the matter is that it's way too early to talk about extraordinary circumstances," said Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., a founding member of the group. "I'm not hearing any of my colleagues talk about it, and I'd rather not hear any of my colleagues on the other side talk about it as well."

Mr. Bush picked Alito after his nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers collapsed, undermined by conservatives who were concerned about her judicial philosophy and her lack of judicial experience.

Alito, 55, has served for 15 years on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Philadelphia after being a government lawyer and U.S. attorney, and has a clear conservative paper trail on the bench.

But some people are looking at a young Alito to try to find indicators of how he'd vote on certain issues.

For example, Alito joined the Army reserves while he was a college student because his draft lottery number made it likely he would be taken for the Vietnam War, his college roommates said.

Also, 30 years before the Supreme Court decriminalized gay sex, Alito declared on behalf of his group of fellow Princeton University students that "no private sexual act between consenting adults should be forbidden."

Alito, back in 1971, also called for an end to discrimination against homosexuals in hiring.

"If these are his views today — and there is no indication they are not — it's a hopeful sign that may provide some insight into his philosophy," said David Smith, the policy vice president of the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates gay rights.

Republicans say what they know about him shows that he's qualified to sit on the high court. The Senate's No. 2 Republican, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, called Alito a "very, very impressive intellect and a very well qualified nominee." Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas added, "Unless something very different comes out that we don't know about, I certainly would intend to support him."

After a flurry of filibuster talk immediately following Alito's nomination, Senate Democrats now are taking a wait-and-see stance.

"I don't know a single Democrat who is saying that it's time for a filibuster, that we should really consider it," Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, said after meeting with Alito on Wednesday. "It's way too early."

Nelson said Alito had assured him "that he wants to go to the bench without a political agenda, that he is not bringing a hammer and chisel to hammer away and chisel away on existing law."

Durbin said the judge told him he saw a right to privacy in the Constitution, one of the building blocks of the court's landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision.

Alito said that when it came to his dissent on Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a case in which the 3rd Circuit struck down a Pennsylvania law that included a provision requiring women seeking abortions to notify their spouses, that "he spent more time worrying over it and working on that dissent than any he had written as a judge," Durbin recounted.