G Harrold Carswell

When he picked federal appeals Judge Stephen G. Breyer for the Supreme Court, President Clinton was counting on avoiding controversy in the Senate. Yet when Breyer's confirmation hearings got under way last week, the widely respected jurist found himself fending off conflict-of-interest charges.

Huh? Jim Hill--the man KABC-TV Channel 7 hired away from KCBS-TV Channel 2 at a reported $750,000 a year for reasons that remain unclear--was ending a report last week on the Dallas Cowboys being the first NFL team to undertake voluntary AIDS testing. Although all the players "passed," Hill reported, some Cowboys wondered what would have happened if one of them had tested positive. Not to worry.

What makes Judge Stephen G. Breyer such a "safe" choice for the U.S. Supreme Court is also what makes him such an out standing choice. Here is a man who has won the respect of an Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and an Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) and a Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.). He is precisely the sort of politician who can have a major impact on the court. The coverage of Breyer's nomination has focused more on the selection process than on the judge's qualifications.

Two decades ago, it was Harry A. Blackmun who advanced to the Supreme Court almost by default after the Senate twice rebuffed President Richard M. Nixon's efforts to place Southern conservatives on the court. Now it is Anthony M. Kennedy, like Blackmun an obscure federal appeals court judge, who became President Reagan's nominee for the court only after two more conservative Reagan choices failed to gain Senate confirmation.

As Senate opposition to the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Robert H. Bork swelled Thursday to an ironclad majority of 53 votes, President Reagan for the first time softened his insistence that the full Senate vote on the nominee. When asked by reporters whether he would withdraw the nomination, Reagan responded that Bork "has a decision to make."

The AFL-CIO, which played a major role in defeating two of former President Richard M. Nixon's Supreme Court nominees, is expected Monday to approve a sharply worded resolution urging the Senate to reject President Reagan's nomination of Robert H. Bork to the high court, union sources said Friday.

As prospects for the Supreme Court confirmation of Judge Robert H. Bork collapse around them, the Adminis tration and its conservative allies are already positioning themselves for a fractious "Who lost Bork?" debate if the nominee fails. White House aides have begun complaining--first privately and now in print--that the conservative lobby groups are not pushing hard enough for Bork.

Robert H. Bork said Friday that he is not out to press a political agenda on the Supreme Court and added that he would be "disgraced in history" if he abandoned the moderate stands he has taken in Senate hearings and turned radically rightward after confirmation. "I have no ideological agenda and it wouldn't do me any good if I did," he said. "If confirmed, I don't intend to be the only one running around up there with a political agenda."

White House and Justice Department officials said Sunday that a new nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy will be named soon and one senior White House official said that federal appeals court Judge Anthony M. Kennedy of Sacramento--who just missed being named 10 days ago--is now the front-runner. Just hours after Judge Douglas H.

Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, the 85-year-old author of the Roe vs. Wade opinion that made abortion legal, is expected to announce his retirement today, according to Clinton Administration officials. The fourth oldest person ever to serve on the court, Blackmun has broadly hinted in recent months that this term, ending in late June, would be his last.