Busy news day, this October 8th in 1987.
THE Senate Judiciary Committee’s 9-5 vote against Judge Robert Bork indicated he also would fail to win majority support in the full Senate. The controlling fact is his opponents succeeded in making him appear an extremist, and succeeded in making it politically imprudent for many otherwise open-minded senators to vote for his confirmation. President Reagan is understandably angry over the tactics employed to distort and misrepresent Judge Bork’s record and to enflame public opinion against him. The president’s determination to press on for a full Senate vote reflects a principled commitment to an abused nominee, and it’s certainly warranted in behalf of so distinguished an individual. Even so, Judge Bork himself could well consider withdrawing.
If he concluded there was no chance of his winning confirmation, larger consolations could be won by cutting the dispute short. Withdrawal would put clearer responsibility for his defeat on the social issue lobbying groups that spent millions publicly and privately turning his nomination into a political lynching. And withdrawal would leave in-house responsibility for the outcome with the likes of Sens. Biden, Kennedy and Metzenbaum, whose spitefulness represented the cutting edge of Senate opposition to the man.
Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson, basing his campaign pitch on “respect for moral traditions,” admitted that his own son was conceived out of wedlock. The evangelist acknowledged in an interview with The Washington Post that he had lied in the past about the date of his marriage. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Robertson was married Aug. 27, 1954, 10 weeks before his first son was born. Robertson told the Post in July he was married March 22, 1954.
And President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua countering President Reagan said Wednesday his leftist government would never threaten US security. Ortega in New York for an address today to the UN General Assembly also said his government was introducing legislation to improve the climate for foreign investment in Nicaragua. On Wednesday Ortega told the Young Presidents Club an organization of business executives that the “foundations for an authentic democratic process are being laid in Nicaragua”.
And along with the developing story on Robert Bork, that’s a small slice of what happened, October 8, 1987 as reported on The CBS World News Roundup.
