Bork Refuses to Quit, Forces Vote by Senate : Complains of Distortion Against Him

WASHINGTON —  Judge Robert H. Bork astonished political handicappers Friday by refusing to abandon his seemingly doomed nomination to the Supreme Court, saying that his withdrawal would only encourage future “public campaigns of distortion” against judicial nominees.

In an emotion-charged White House statement, Bork said that his opponents’ unusually bitter crusade against his confirmation could set a “dangerous” precedent for bringing politics into Senate reviews of nonpartisan judicial nominees.

“Were the fate of Robert Bork the only matter at stake, I would ask the President to withdraw my nomination,” Bork said, his voice breaking and jaw trembling. “The most serious and lasting injury in all of this, however, is not to me. . . . Rather, it is to the dignity and integrity of law and of public service in this country.”

53 Votes Against Him

White House officials held scant hope that Bork’s dramatic stand could sway a Senate that appears solidly committed against elevating him to the Supreme Court. Already, 53 of the 100 senators have declared their opposition to him, and several others are leaning that way.

More likely, some congressional experts predicted, the decision to press the nomination in the Senate will provoke a blistering floor fight between conservative Republicans and those lawmakers, Republican and Democrat alike, who turned the tide against Bork.

“I find it, frankly, mystifying,” one Senate Judiciary Committee Democratic aide said of the decision. “The longer it drags out, the more harm to Republicans.”

Bork elected on his own to remain in the fight, telling President Reagan of his decision Friday afternoon in a meeting with White House advisers in the President’s residence, officials said.

No Doubts About Strategy

Neither Reagan nor the advisers, who included Vice President George Bush and White House Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr., voiced any doubts about the strategy, said a senior Administration official who refused to be named.

Reagan later said that he is “pleased” by Bork’s decision and that he will “fight on for an independent judiciary” in the days left before a Senate vote on the nomination. Senate leaders said the debate on the nomination will begin on Oct. 20 and last about two weeks.

The President will speak on the nomination in his weekly radio address today, and a nationally televised speech on the subject in the next week has not been ruled out, one senior official said.

Conservative activists said that Bork’s startling move gives them a chance to pull a political victory out of what appeared to be a stunning defeat.

“This will shift the focus of the debate from Bork to Bork’s accusers--the Kennedys and Bidens who carried on this McCarthyite campaign of disinformation,” said Michael McDonald, president of the Washington Legal Foundation. He was referring to Senate Judiciary Committee members Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), Bork’s leading critics.

The White House, refusing to formally concede defeat in the nomination battle, will not consider other nominees for the vacant Supreme Court seat until Bork has been voted down, one official said.

‘A Very Long Shot’

But White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater called the nomination “a very long shot” and said that lobbying now will focus “not at winning the vote but at making the point and educating the country . . . trying to see to it that future nominees don’t have to be subjected to this sort of thing.”

Fitzwater called Bork’s decision “a very eloquent and high-minded action on his part--typically un-Washington.”

“It might be a healthy debate for Washington to see,” he said of the Senate confirmation battle.

One of the Bork opponents’ key strategists, civil rights leader Ralph Neas, said Friday that critics “look forward to a debate on Robert Bork’s record, for the best evidence against confirmation is that record.”

“There is no way successfully to distort what the American people saw in 12 days of public hearings” on Bork’s confirmation last month, said Neas, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Long Debate Sought

A White House official indicated that the Administration would not oppose an early vote on Bork’s nomination, although some conservative lawmakers are pressing for a longer debate to keep the issue in the public eye.

If Bork is rejected by the Senate, as expected, White House domestic policy adviser Gary L. Bauer said Friday, the Administration will probably move quickly to nominate a replacement for the high court seat, vacant since July.

Bork’s announcement may nevertheless spell deadlock for the Supreme Court through most of its current term, which began this week. Nearly one-fourth of last year’s cases were decided by the vote of now-retired Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Bork’s commitment to pursuing the nomination, made after a day of family deliberations, apparently surprised the White House. Reagan on Thursday appeared to have softened his own rigid commitment to a Senate vote, saying that Bork “has a decision to make” on continuing the fight.

On Friday, Bork all but conceded that his chance of attaining the court is lost, saying that he can “harbor no illusions” about the coming vote.

“But a crucial principle is at stake,” he said. “That principle is the way in which we select the men and women who guard the liberties of all the American people. That should not be done through public campaigns of distortion.

“If I withdraw now, that campaign would be seen as a success, and it would be mounted against future nominees.”

Bork Attacks Foes

In his statement, Bork said flatly that his foes had abandoned their ethics and misrepresented his record in their battle to defeat him.

Reagan’s nomination of the conservative federal appeals court judge has been the target of unusually bitter criticism by political and ideological opponents of the White House in the last three months. The tactics have ranged from sharp attacks on Bork’s personal beliefs in televised confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee to advertisements by liberal interest groups condemning Bork’s judicial record and philosophy.

They have accused him of having a narrow view of the Constitution and of harboring intentions to overturn laws on free speech, civil rights and privacy.

By their decision to unleash “the tactics and techniques of national political campaigns” against him, he said, his opponents threaten to erode public confidence in judges and to destroy the judicial system’s political independence.

“Federal judges are not appointed to decide cases according to the latest opinion polls,” he said. “But, when judicial nominees are assessed and treated like political candidates, the effect will be to chill the climate in which judicial deliberations take place.”

Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III said Friday that he did not advise Bork on his decision but that he agrees with his judgment “that there are issues here that are larger than any one man, or indeed, any one President.”

“The great issue of our time is whether judges will adhere to our Constitution and laws as they are written or follow their own ideas about public policy and impose them on the American people,” Meese said.

11 Not Committed

Bork’s decision to pursue the nomination shifts attention to the Senate, where both sides are expected to fight more for public attention than for the votes of the 11 senators who have yet to disclose their intentions.

Seven of the 11 undecided senators are Republicans, suggesting that GOP lawmakers may believe they have more to lose politically by taking a stand on Bork’s controversial nomination than do Democrats.

Conservatives began the new phase of the battle Friday afternoon with a sign-waving rally of about 200 Bork supporters behind the White House. Republican presidential candidate Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) told the crowd that the fight for Bork’s confirmation, far from being over, begins now.

“This issue is a question of the people or the elitists,” he said, “and I believe the people can win.”

Ultraconservative political strategist Howard Phillips ripped into White House Chief of Staff Baker in another speech, saying the President’s top assistant had pushed a “white flag strategy” that doomed Bork’s chance of confirmation.

Staff writers Ronald J. Ostrow, David Lauter and David G. Savage contributed to this story.