Product is judge; market is America

WASHINGTON -- The selling of John Roberts Jr. to the Senate and the public is unfolding in the salons of senators who will control his confirmation, on the television screens of an American electorate that knows little of the nominee and in the e-mails of interest groups supporting him.

The White House has launched an orchestrated, multiple-front assault, ranging from Capitol Hill to television news programs. In framing Roberts as a brilliant jurist and good-hearted man, the White House also is demanding a "civil debate" during the Senate's confirmation process. The administration aims to put potential critics on the defensive by requiring them to demonstrate that they are not simply promoting a political agenda.

For now, the public persona of Roberts is painted in superficial hues. The president's introduction of Roberts produced the perfect photo-op: Roberts' young son Jack in shorts and saddle shoes performing a jig on the carpet of the White House.

After meeting with Senate Republican and Democratic leaders on Wednesday, Roberts made the rounds of several Senate offices on Thursday.

Roberts is making a point of holding early meetings with the three senators on the Judiciary Committee who voted against his confirmation for the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington in 2003: Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Durbin is expecting a 45-minute meeting with Roberts on Friday.

Since O'Connor's July 1 retirement announcement, Bush has tried to signal that he would not range far from the middle of the road. The operative word of spokesmen in the days before Tuesday's announcement was "mainstream."

"It's a strategy they typically use, to write the description and then the person is supposedly defined by it," said Wayne Fields, director of American culture studies at Washington University in St. Louis. "It's a way to predetermine the image of the candidate, to sort of co-opt the language."

But experts suggest that the personal temperament of the president's nominee will be as important as his philosophical leanings and legal theories in the selling of John Roberts.

•	Product is judge; market is America White House script for John Roberts Jr. handled judiciously Chicago Tribune, Friday, July 22, 2005 Byline: Mark Silva, Washington Bureau

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