Smoking gun eludes the reporters pursuing judge

US: The throng of journalists lined up outside the US National Archives made the place look like the local cinema on the opening…

US: The throng of journalists lined up outside the US National Archives made the place look like the local cinema on the opening night of Star Wars, without the storm-trooper costumes.

They had come on Thursday to examine 39,000 pages of the paper trail of US Supreme Court nominee John Roberts - perhaps even to find the smoking gun which would brand him a hardline conservative or a closet moderate - and they vied fiercely for 71 boxes of 20-year-old documents.

"Box 11 is good," said one.

"Nine might be interesting," suggested another.

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"Box 48 has Sandinista violations. That's good stuff."

When New York Times reporter Anne Kornblut reached the front of the line, she requested Box 51.

"No," said archives official James Hastings, checking his list of available files. "But I can give you a nice special on 47."

"Box 34?" she ventured.

"Gone," Hastings said, proposing Box 36.

"Thirty-two?" "No."

"Twenty-seven?" "No."

"You're killing me," replied the determined Kornblut, who finally settled for Box 2. "I had six I wanted, and now I'm getting the Airline Deregulation Act," she lamented.

"I want to welcome all of you to the east coast opening of the John Roberts files from the Ronald Reagan Library," assistant archivist Sharon Fawcett had said in front of six TV cameras, four still cameras, two boom microphones and 100 heavily caffeinated reporters.

"We wish you great luck in searching the files."

In the end, the Roberts researchers needed more than luck. They found plenty of amusing things in the papers, including Roberts's views on the Marine Mammal Coalition and the propriety of President Ronald Reagan's use of the word "keister" (buttock - origin 19th century - "It may depend on where one was reared," Roberts had joked).

But there wasn't the definitive document that revealed Roberts's views on such charged topics as the key abortion decision, Roe v Wade, or affirmative action.

Most news outlets brought three readers, but the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Mike McGough came alone. "I'm a self-taught speed reader," he explained.

Archivists drew names from a large yellow suggestion box, as if performing the draft for the National Football League. USA Today, with the first pick in the first round, went with Box 49 - "set-aside cases". Reuters, picking second, chose Box 1 - "advisory committees". ABC News got Box 6 - "briefing materials", and Fox News selected Box 11 - "Contra aid".

The boxes distributed, the room took on the tense, quiet mood of an exam hall. Cameras circled, but the mood soon turned again to disappointment. USA Today's Joan Biskupic returned her first-round draft pick, Box 49, after just a few minutes. Anything good? "I'm bringing it back, aren't I?" she replied.

The New York Sun returned Box 7 with equal speed. And the others found the same thing. NBC? "Nothing." Fox? "Nah." Boston Globe? "Nothing."

An hour into the search, the readers had found only a quarter-inch stack worthy of photocopying combined. "Pimples of history", said the Times's Todd Purdum. By 3 pm the collection of documents worth copying had reached only 48, and that included pages about the restoration of the Reagan boyhood home, briefings about the San Antonio transport authority and a debate about whether there should be an application fee for White House press passes.

Reporters were wearing the bemused faces of people who had been the victims of a practical joke.

An NBC reporter shook his head. "I can't get enough about soybean imports," he said darkly and walked towards the door. - (Los Angeles Times/Washington Post Service)