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Such a showdown could invigorate, at least temporarily, a presidency that has recently been creeping along like a paraplegic duck. The conciliatory approach Reagan used in pushing Bork was similar to the strategy he pursued with his ambivalent support for the Central American peace plan and his reluctant compromise on the budget. In the process, he has come close to losing on three of his most important remaining goals: securing his social agenda by shifting the Supreme Court to the right, saving the contras and preventing a tax increase or cuts in defense spending. The White House stands to gain only one advantage from the continuation of the Bork clash: after a bloody battle, critics may be less willing to fight the President's next nominee.
Bork is resigned to the near impossibility of his confirmation. His refusal to withdraw was a protest against the efforts to depict him as a right-wing ideologue. More important, he saw the quixotic effort as a way to defy the politicization of the confirmation process. "For the sake of the federal judiciary and the American people," declared Bork last week, "that must not happen."
His decision to prolong the battle will certainly cast a harsh spotlight on the often crass lobbying and campaign practices used against him. But it will not dampen the opposition to him -- or the essentially political nature of the decision the Senate will make. While Bork may be justified in charging he has been treated unfairly, his trove of controversial opinions and statements aroused deep concerns about the type of Justice he would be. With a divided court hanging in the balance, it was almost inevitable that the resulting political passions would play a large part in the confirmation process.