Richard Nixon's aides were cultivating a long-range historical view of the Supreme Court last week. After all, they said in quiet self-commiseration, the Senate quarreled for four months in 1916 before confirming Louis Brandeis' nominationand whatever the cavils raised at the time, Brandeis went on to a long, distinguished career on the bench.
In the current case of Judge Clement Haynsworth, however, the White House attitudea combination of stolidity and nervous optimismincreasingly sounded like whistling in the dark. Though the Senate Judiciary Committee last week cleared Haynsworth's nomination to the Supreme...