This is the advice Supreme Court nominees have heard over the decades from guides selected by presidents to guide candidates through the Senate confirmation process.
Former Alabama Senator Doug Jones has likely been providing similar guidance to her for the one-on-1 meetings with senators and her confirmation hearing which opens Monday.
Republican Tom Korologos said that he had told hundreds of nominees for executive and judicial positions (including the Supreme Court) what he believes he has told them. This is the message he sent to the many people he has guided through decades of federal government.
Korologos stated in an interview that it was difficult to show a brilliant Bork and Scalia, or a brilliant Rehnquist, how to conduct themselves in confirmation hearings when they’re up in front of a lot of senators.
Modern presidents have established teams of advisers to assist nominees through the difficult, time-consuming, and often contentious process of nominating a national Supreme Court judge.
Guides are often experienced Washington hands who combine many roles into one: coach and confidant, liaison with Capitol Hill and the administration, traffic cop, strategist, and all with the single goal of helping the nominee win confirm. History has shown that this is not always the case.
Korologos was the one who guided the confirmation of Antonin Scalia and William Rehnquist, both Supreme Court Justices. He was defeated by Robert Bork, a federal judge who the Senate rejected for a seat at the high court in 1987.
Biden called Jones to help the 51-year old federal appeals court judge navigate the process. Jackson, if confirmed by the Senate will be the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court’s more than 232 year history.
White House counsel Dana Remus stated that Jones, himself a lawyer was the “perfect choice” due to the relationships he built in both parties during his short Senate stint. He lost a bid for a full Senate term in 2021.
Remus stated to The Associated Press that he is “much loved by R’s & D’s, and with good reason.” “He is such a warm and engaging person.”
Jones, Jackson and a White House entourage travel from Senate office to Senate Office. They fill her in on the expectations of each senator and join the small talk after and before meetings. In the three weeks since Biden announced that she was his pick, she has met 44 senators from both parties, as well as all 22 members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Jones stated Thursday that the discussions were engaging and respectful and that Jones’ extraordinary experience, intelligence, and character were displayed.
Stephanie Cutter is a veteran Democratic strategist and was the one who guided Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She advised that Supreme Court nominees decline interview requests in order to avoid any statements that could be misunderstood or become problematic, which could jeopardize her nomination.
She said that the nominee’s speeches, judicial opinions, and other writings provide plenty of material for their adversaries.
Cutter stated that “you don’t want anything to it,” during a Politico podcast.
Jackson was a federal appellate and trial court judge. She wrote over 600 opinions. Her nomination questionnaire is more than 2000 pages long and the Judiciary Committee can access more than 12,000 pages of the Sentencing Commission where she was once a judge.
Since Biden announced her nomination on February 25, she has been on a charm offensive, meeting with each of the 100 senators before the hearing. This will take up most of next week. Before the full Senate votes on her nomination, she will spend at most two days answering questions from members of the Judiciary Committee.
“That’s something they have to be prepared for before walking into it,” stated Dan Coats (a former Republican U.S. Senator from Indiana) who guided Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, until she withdrew due to bipartisan opposition. Coats assisted President George W. Bush in confirming Samuel Alito.
Coats stated that his team’s motto was “three months of hell and a lifetime job” — a reminder of the fact that “it’s all going to be over within three months, then nobody’s going for you for your whole life.”
However, the timetable has been shortened significantly since Alito was confirmed in January 2006.
Republicans rushed Amy Coney Barrett through the process in just a month after her nomination from President Donald Trump. She joined the court shortly before Trump’s November 2020 defeat.
Democrats are hoping for a speedy confirmation process for Jackson. They hope she can succeed Justice Stephen Breyer by mid-April. Officials at the White House working on her nomination declined any details.
Coats stated that his team met every morning at the White House to review the list and discuss their concerns. They also anticipated questions and formulated answers. After reviewing the list of senators, Coats said that his team met again to discuss how things were.
He stated that he advised Alito to keep a smile on his face.
Coats described his time as a guide as “the best unpaid job”
Korologos stated that he advised all nominees to have the “passion and enthusiasm of a commencement speech, inspiring and lofty” but “say nothing.”
He advised them to defer to senators and to adhere to one of his most important pieces, which he called the “80-20 rule”.
Korologos believes that a nominee is winning if senators do 80% of the talking. A ratio of 60-40 means that the nominee is “arguing” or is “in trouble.”
It’s over at 50-50. Korologos stated that they have “blown it”.
