Brownback To Lead McCain Judges Committee

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), who endorsed John McCain’s presidential bid soon after he ended his own last year, has been named co-chairman of the McCain campaign’s new justice advisory committee. His fellow co-chairman is Ted Olson, former U.S. solicitor general and a leading conservative lawyer.

Brownback is also a co-chairman of National Catholics for McCain, leading McCain’s outreach to a key voter bloc in general elections. Brownback has pledged not to run for a third term in 2010, as many expect him to run for Kansas governor.

Yet another of McCain’s vanquished rivals for the Republican nomination, former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.), is one of dozens of members of the justice committee. Thompson, who helped earn the respect of the Republican high court observers by shepherding John Roberts through his Senate confirmation to the Supreme Court, appeared with McCain on Monday to vouch for his conservative judicial philosophy.

The McCain campaign this week has been trying to reassure Republican voters of his support for conservative court appointments, as Alexander Bolton reported in Tuesday’s Hill.