National Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

WASHINGTON
DEBATE ON ROBERTS STARTS TODAY
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to begin four days of floor debate this afternoon on the nomination of John Roberts Jr. to be chief justice. Confirmation of the 50-year-old federal Court of Appeals judge was assured last week when all 10 Republican members of the 18-member Senate Judiciary Committee voted in his favor ahead of a full Senate vote this Thursday. The question now is how many Democratic votes Judge Roberts will get.
With a filibuster-proof 60 votes already assured, discussion on the president’s next pick is expected in floor speeches by Democrats and Republicans this week. President Bush is under pressure from some Senate Republicans to keep to a campaign pledge of nominating conservative justices in the mold of Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas. Democrats are warning the president to choose a “consensus” nominee in the mold of Justice O’Connor, whose seat the president is looking to fill. The president has indicated that he could name a replacement nominee for Justice O’Connor as soon as Friday.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
CHENEY IS DISCHARGED FROM HOSPITAL
Vice President Cheney walked slowly out of the hospital Sunday, one day after surgery to repair aneurysms on the back of both his knees.
Mr. Cheney emerged from George Washington University Hospital in the late morning with his wife, Lynne, at his side. He shook hands with doctors and then walked to his motorcade without any assistance, although he moved slower than his normally brisk pace. Mr. Cheney, who has a history of heart problems, was under local anesthesia during the six-hour surgery Saturday. His spokesman, Steve Schmidt, said the vice president planned to resume his regular schedule after being released.
An aneurysm is a ballooning weak spot in an artery that can eventually can burst if left untreated. Mr. Cheney’s aneurysms, known as popliteal aneurysms, were discovered during his annual physical in July.
Mr. Cheney had been scheduled to have only the right knee operated on Saturday but during the surgery his doctors decided to do both at once, Mr. Schmidt said. There were no complications. Mr. Cheney, 64, has had four heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, two artery-clearing angioplasties, and an operation to implant a special pacemaker in his chest.
– Associated Press
MCCAIN SAYS PRISONER ABUSE HARMS U.S. IMAGE
Senator McCain said yesterday that abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers, alleged anew in a report and under investigation again by the Army, is hurting the nation’s image abroad.
“We’ve got to have it stopped,” Mr. McCain, a Republican of Arizona said on “This Week” on ABC. “I don’t know if these allegations are true or not, but they have to be investigated.”
Human Rights Watch issued a report Friday based on interviews with a captain and two sergeants who served in a battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division stationed at a military base near Fallujah. The report alleged that Army soldiers systematically tortured Iraqi detainees from 2003 into 2004, hitting them with baseball bats and dousing them with chemicals.
The Army says it has opened an investigation into a soldier’s allegations that he witnessed and heard about widespread prisoner abuse, including torture and a beating with a baseball bat, while serving at a base in Iraq.
– Associated Press
CRIME RATE STEADY IN 2004
The nation’s crime rate was unchanged last year, holding at the lowest levels since the government began surveying crime victims in 1973, the Justice Department reported yesterday.
Since 1993, violent crime as measured by victim surveys has fallen by 57% and property crime by 50%. That has included a 9% drop in violent crime from 2001-02 to 2003-04.
The 2004 violent crime rate – assault, sexual assault, and armed robbery – was 21.4 victims for every 1,000 people age 12 and older. That amounts to about one violent crime victim for every 47 American residents.
By comparison, there were 22.6 violent crime victims per 1,000 people in 2003. The Bureau of Justice Statistics said the difference between the rates in 2003 and 2004 was statistically insignificant.
– Associated Press