[CWW]

Also, to read Feddie's Weblog, go to:

http://www.southernappeal.blogspot.com/

[Neville72]

McConnel is a great legal mind, was confirmed easily to the Court of Appeals and will be a great nominee to the SCOTUS.

Let's get on with it. Nuke the filibuster!

[katieanna]

Thanks for the report. I've never heard of this site, though. Reliable, as far as you know?

McConnell for Chief Justice is interesting. I'm not surprised that Thomas would decline for the reasons stated, but, I don't understand Scalia being passed over.

Should be hard for dems to raise a stink over McConnell since they confirmed him in the last 4 years.

[grobdriver]

Expect a long hot summer of fevered rhetoric.

Let's GET IT ON!

[AnAmericanMother]

If he spoke out against the Bush-Gore decision, he may be another Souter. Did he speak out against the 7-2 part, or the 4-3 part? (I.e. the wrong, or the remedy?) If he spoke out against the 4-3 part I don't really have a problem, because reasonable minds can differ about the appropriate remedy. But if he spoke out against the 7-2 part, he's a #$@)(^()%)& closet liberal.

Do we really need that?

[conservativecorner]

(for example, he publicly opposed the impeachment of Bill Clinton and spoke out strongly against the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court decision)

This won't exactly bring a ringing endorsement from conservatives. I will believe this article when it happens and not before. It's speculation at this point on the part of the writer.

[ZULU]

What's his view of the Second Amendment??

And why did he have a problem with the impeachment of the slimeball??

I'm very suspicious of these appointees - all of them.

There have been many a "conservative" appointee like Kennedy, Souter and Warren who changed into liberals in the utopianist milieu of Washington.

I can't EVER recall the reverse.

Scalia and Thomas have proven track records in my mind.

[Bean Counter]

Long hot summer? I don't think so.

I think Frist will allow a reasonalbe amount of debate, call for cloture when required, and nuke 'em till they glow when the 'Rats try to filibuster. Shouldn't take all that long.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Judging by this "dossier" assembled by a "women's rights" group, McConnell is a true conservative:

http://www.legalmomentum.org/congress/judicialnominations/McConnell.pdf

[Graymatter]

I can believe this...as long as the source is a Grand Poobah, and not just a Standard Poobah.

[GarySpFc]

This could be true. I just did a search on his name, and People for the American Way oppose him. NOW, NARAL and the other pro-aborts are going to go into hystronics. Here are a couple of paragraphs from their site:

People for the American Way Report in Opposition to the Confirmation of Michael W. McConnell

McConnell Strongly Opposes Roe v. Wade and Legal Protection for Reproductive Rights

McConnell’s numerous legal writings and statements evince a strident opposition to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision establishing a woman’s right to privacy and reproductive choice. 410 U.S. 113. Describing the Roe decision as conferring a “private ‘right’ to use lethal violence to ‘solve’ personal. . . . problems,”47 McConnell has consistently stated that the decision was wrongly decided and illegitimate. He has called Roe “a gross misinterpretation of the Constitution,”48 an “embarrassment to those who take constitutional law seriously,”49 and a “grave legal error[] in the service of an extreme vision of abortion rights that the vast majority of Americans rightly consider unjust and immoral.”50 Equating Roe v. Wade with the infamous Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson decisions which upheld slavery and the segregation of African Americans, McConnell has openly called on the Supreme Court to reverse and overturn Roe as “it did [with Plessy] in Brown v. Board of Education.”51

In addition, McConnell has advocated a constitutional amendment that would reverse “the doctrines of Roe v. Wade and [Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v.] Casey, and establishing that the right to life protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments extends to the unborn child.”52 Whether achieved by court decision or constitutional amendment, such action could justify federal or state legislatures banning abortion in all cases, except perhaps to save the life of the mother, including cases of rape and incest, and impose criminal sanctions against women who have abortions and the doctors who perform them.53 In fact, McConnell’s argument that the Equal Protection Clause should protect fetuses suggests that government not only would be permitted to ban abortion but actually would be constitutionally required to do so in most cases.54 Finally, McConnell has expressed the view that a “right of privacy” and of “personal autonomy” does not exist under the Constitution, which could threaten the right of women even to have access to birth control in some cases, new emergency contraceptives, and early “medical abortions” such as use of RU-486.

[KenmcG414]

God help us if he's another Souter.

[InterceptPoint]

Scalia was viewed as too divisive within the court (also entirely plausible)

Scalia's age (70) is a reasonable consideration here but being "too divisive" wouldn't matter a hoot if John McCain would have left well enough alone. If Scalia doesn't get the CJ job then the Dems have won and they couldn't have done it without good old Johnny Boy.

[Redbob]

Bush may also be thinking that putting a younger man of the Court will guarantee many years of conservative influence, while Scalia will likely be replaced within a decade.

[bvw]

Janet Rodgers Brown.

So much better than another milquetoast.