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The following is a roundup of candidate developments in the 2008 presidential race, from CQPolitics.com. • Debates to Spring Forth Early in New Hampshire: CNN and two prominent New Hampshire news organizations announced Friday that they will join forces to stage back-to-back presidential candidate debates this April in that crucial “first-in-the-nation” primary state. Television station WMUR and the Union Leader newspaper — both based in Manchester, New Hampshire’s largest city — are partnering with the cable news network to produce the debates, scheduled for April 4 and 5. Contenders for the Democratic nomination will meet in one debate, while the...

It's getting to the point where the conservative - dominant - wing of the Republican Party needs to take out a want ad in the newspaper or post a listing on Craigslist.com to find a candidate for president. In the field taking shape before our eyes, none of the top four contenders is likely to satisfy their delicate palates - made more arrogant and discerning by decades of victories. Rudy Guiliani? Pro-choice, pro-affirmative action, pro-gay rights, pro-immigration, pro-gun control Rudy? Righties will vote for him only if they have lobotomies first. Remember how the New York City Council prohibited the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a concession to the Senate's new Democratic majority, four of President Bush's appeals court appointees have asked to have their nominations withdrawn, Republican officials said Tuesday. These officials said that William Haynes, William Myers and Terrence Boyle had all decided to abandon their quest for confirmation. Another nominee, Mike Wallace, let it be known last month that he, too, had asked Bush to withdraw his nomination.

White House Counsel Harriet Miers, the Supreme Court nominee who withdrew after a conservative revolt last fall, has allegedly vetoed several recommendations offered by conservatives to fill vacancies on federal courts. The White House would not directly respond to the charge, which was made this morning during a conference call with more than 40 conservative leaders. Two people on the call—whose identities I promised to keep confidential—said they had inside knowledge of the recommended nominees whom Miers nixed.

This week's Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Judge Samuel Alito appear to have given rise to a new sport in the blogosphere: Whack-A-Pol. Here's how the game is played: Every time a senator pops up with a comment on Alito, bloggers whack 'em down with a rhetorical hammer. But unlike the game Whack-A-Mole, where the nimble moles often avoid the blows by ducking into their holes, no senator -- regardless of party or popularity outside the realm of mouth-to-mouth combat over judicial nominations -- can escape the jabs of bloggers. Even worse, bloggers tend to prefer hammers of the sledge...

In a surprise announcement that shocked the economics community, President Bush named Robert McCleskey, his personal tax accountant, to succeed Alan Greenspan. McCleskey, who has little or no track record in the area of monetary policy, will now face the rigors of a grueling confirmation process. Given the defining nature of the appointment and the challenges of filling Greenspan's legendary shoes, some observers were surprised the President chose McCleskey, a man who has never written on anything vaguely related to the Federal Reserve or monetary issues. When asked about why he chose McCleskey the President responded aggressively. "He's a heckuva...

Senate confirmation of President Bush's choice to be U.S. ambassador to the European Union has been delayed for several weeks, and the nominee may not take his post until well into November. Bush's choice as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is serving under a recess appointment and may never be confirmed. The reason: the individual whims of two Republican senators. Freshman Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida last week temporarily blocked the confirmation of longtime GOP stalwart C. Boyden Gray to the EU for petty political reasons. Much more serious because its effect looks permanent, Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio...

The commotion surrounding the President's two nominations for the Supreme Court illustrates far better than any other recent mediastorms the extent of the damage that has already been done to the institutions of the United States. The pundits, both theirs and ours, in their arguments about how the nominee will rule, have apparently utterly lost sight of the objective. During the Clinton Administration the Republican Senate abdicated their sworn responsibilities to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, when they acquiesced in the installation of Judge Ginsburg on the court. The accepted concept was that each President should...

I am a bit confused. Bush was re-elected by his conservative base on the understanding that he would appoint strict constructionist judges with traditional values. Bush chose Harriet Miers to replace Sandra Day O’Connor. Miers is pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment, and is definitely not a judicial activist. Exactly the kind of person Bush’s base wanted. And all I have heard over the last week is wailing, crying, moaning, sulking, and general hell-raising from conservatives...... -- excerpt --

MOOSEMUSS. Yes, MOOSEMUSS. That is what came to mind when the discussion amongst the right about the Harriet Miers nomination went into full tilt yesterday…MOOSEMUSS. Hat tip to Mr. Atos for planting the seed with his Bangalore Torpedo piece, and after all the rancor yesterday, I thought, MOOSEMUSS. I don’t buy the theory that in an instant, that the President, who incidentally, got the GWOT right, and the John Roberts nomination right, who has Dick Cheney as his VP and Condi Rice as his SOS…blew a gasket and has gotten this completely wrong. I thought…maybe …MOOSEMUSS. I think that the...

Democrats must insist that the Senate not vote on John Roberts' confirmation to be chief justice until after Sandra Day O'Connor's successor is also named. The Senate needs to evaluate both picks together in assessing their impact on the Supreme Court, now and for years to come. Also, Democrats need to make clear that since President Bush has already picked a conservative in Roberts for one vacancy, the other selection needs to be a more moderate Republican in the mold of O'Connor. Otherwise, a court that currently reflects a moderate mainstream view could become one that would be significantly further...

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroederhas been nominated for the 2005 Nobel peace prize, the German press agency (DPA) reported on Tuesday. Guenter Grass, Germany's 1999 Nobel literature laureate, told DPA Monday that he considered Schroeder a candidate for the peace award because of his strong opposition to the US-led war against Iraq. Other names mentioned included former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Indian musician Ravi Shankar, and former Czech president Vaclav Havel.

Only an indistinct portrait of the young John G. Roberts Jr. emerged in thousands of pages released... from the Supreme Court nominee's years in the Reagan White House. But the documents do provide a vivid reminder of the debates that consumed official Washington in those days. Some of the issues remain pertinent, while others are long forgotten. Anyone expecting the nearly 5,400 pages of documents, dating from late 1982 to mid-1986, to contain the key to the kind of Supreme Court justice that Judge Roberts would be is likely to be disappointed. Whether abortion opponents should be permitted to bury...

...From his perch as ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, Mr. Levin has been running a one-man assault on civilian appointees fighting the war on terror. He currently has a "hold" on no fewer than four nominees selected by President Bush for key national security posts: Eric Edelman for Undersecretary of Defense of Policy, the No. 3 position at the Pentagon; Peter Flory, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy; Alice Fisher, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department's Criminal Division; and Benjamin Powell, general counsel in the office of new Director of National Intelligence. Keep...

We suppose NARAL Pro-Choice America has to do something with the funds it's raised for an anticipated battle over President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, but it may find that the vicious national TV ad that starts airing today may backfire. The ad practically screams: We're so desperate to find something to pin on John Roberts that we're not above making things up. The ad focuses on a friend-of-the-court brief then-deputy Solicitor General Roberts filed in 1991 in the Supreme Court case Bray v. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic. It accuses Judge Roberts of siding with "violent fringe groups and a convicted...

"Estradification": In the spirit of confirmation battles spawning a new lexicon (e.g., "Borking") the Washington Times reports today [http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050721-115711-9900r.htm] on what some Republicans are calling "Estradification"--requiring the Justice Department to turn over internal legal memoranda written by Roberts while he worked in the SG's office. The refusal by the White House to surrender these sorts of documents was the basis for the Estrada filibuster (hence the name) as well as the current Bolton stalemate. Regardless of the merits of the request, it seems highly unlikely that the White House will surrender these documents. The tone of the article suggests that...

For those not news junkies, the overwhelming majority, SCOTUS is the acronym for Supreme Court of the United States. As to getting excited about the coming debate over the latest appointment to this bench, most people's reaction is SCOTUS shmotis. I'm what some partisans of absolutist positions might call wishy-washy on their issues. I prefer to call my attitude rooted in absolute principles and then seeking their practical application. To just take three of the hottest buttons: Abortion is not an absolute "right." It is the taking of a life. I agree with my traditional Jewish laws that allow it...

The retirement of Justice O’Connor didn’t ignite the battle for the heart and soul of America, but it sure will kick it into high gear. The impending retirement of Chief Justice Rehnquist will shift that battle into overdrive and the political mental midgets’ pomposity into overload. [Balderdash from a pompous ass, for you sadly educated left-wing-nuts.] The first thing one must ponder on this topic is how the Supreme Court of the United States became the front line of this battle in the first place. According to one of my favorite founders Thomas Jefferson, "A free people claim their rights...

Like killer bees they will swarm in droves. No nominee will be safe. Ultra-Conservative. Stealth Liberal. Anti-(insert special interest here) Ideologue. Extreme Judicial Activist. The labels ascribed to whoever President Bush nominates to the United States Supreme Court will be legion. And they will be entirely useless in assessing whether that man or woman is fit for the Court. This is no postmodernist-gibberish screed on how words don’t mean anything. Indeed, the usual carping about labels in the law and in politics is considerably overwrought. Justice Rehnquist is generally conservative, and Justice Stevens is generally liberal. Labels often fit. But...

Looks like John McCain may have come to his senses about Supreme Court nominees: DrudgeReport: Sen. McCain [R-AZ] Strong Words On Supreme Ct Nomination at Dallas Fundraiser: 'During the campaign, President Bush said he will appoint judges who will strictly interpret the constitution... thinking anything else is either amnesia or ignorance... elections have consequences... whomever he nominates deserves an up or down vote and no filibuster... and an up or down vote is what we will have'Strong words indeed. But they were given out of the mouth of one of the ringleaders of the Gang of 14. This gives me...

Last week the president admonished conservatives for daring to suggest that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would be an unacceptable Supreme Court nominee because of an opinion he wrote in a Texas parental-notification case while serving on the Texas supreme court, and because of his role as White House counsel in watering down the administration's brief against reverse discrimination in admissions policies at University of Michigan. Keep in mind, conservatives have been respectful in their criticism of Gonzales. There have been no personal attacks or false accusations. And these are the same conservatives who went to bat for Gonzales when the...

The four senators who met with President Bush at the White House Tuesday morning discussed a number of potential Supreme Court nominees, but Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said he thinks they've agreed not to name those names. "We have a long ways to go," Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters after the breakfast meeting at the White House. He said President Bush has hundreds or thousands of names to go through and "he didn't give us any names." Nevertheless, Reid added, "There were a lot of names discussed at the meeting, of which we're not going to talk about any of...

This weekend, members of the MoveOn Political Action Committee will gather in more than 1,000 households across the country to develop neighborhood mobilization plans to stop President Bush from replacing Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor with a "far-right justice who threatens our rights." According to a press release from the organization, members attending the house parties will ask their friends and neighbors to urge their senators to "protect our rights from the radical right." They'll also form rapid response teams that will "spring into action if President Bush chooses an extremist justice," the release stated. Hosts will also show...

The president's favorite judge had scornfully denounced as "illegitimate" dozens of the "most significant constitutional decisions of the past three decades," as well as others going back to the 1920s. He had excoriated "the modern, activist, liberal Supreme Court" for rulings that recognized rights to abortion, contraception, and other aspects of the "right to privacy"; struck down governmental discrimination against women; outlawed official endorsement of religious symbols; required "one person, one vote"; banned poll taxes; and protected sexually explicit speech. And as if to erase any doubt about what Judge Robert Bork might like to do if elevated to the...

The president's favorite judge had scornfully denounced as "illegitimate" dozens of the "most significant constitutional decisions of the past three decades," as well as others going back to the 1920s. He had excoriated "the modern, activist, liberal Supreme Court" for rulings that recognized rights to abortion, contraception, and other aspects of the "right to privacy"; struck down governmental discrimination against women; outlawed official endorsement of religious symbols; required "one person, one vote"; banned poll taxes; and protected sexually explicit speech. And as if to erase any doubt about what Judge Robert Bork might like to do if elevated to the...

The Democrats' orgy over retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is just one fraudulent component of their grand con game in preparation for war over her successor. Oh, sure, they approve of O'Connor's steadfast protection of the Court's pro-abortion precedent. And they appreciate other positions she took in furtherance of their policy agenda, but she's hardly their ideal jurist. After all, she sided with the majority in "selecting" George W. Bush president. Their recent, unified celebration of O'Connor is part of their cynical calculation to position themselves as mainstream and Republicans as extremists. They see this as an essential...

Sen. Schumer declared war on President Bush's nominees to replace the retiring Justice O'Conner. That being the case, I think FReepers can fire the opening volley by writing the seven McCain Mutineers and demanding they publicly support President Bush now that the Democrats have reneged on the deal. A suggested format:Senator __________, A short time ago, you and six of your Republican colleagues made a deal with Democrats in which you promised not to support any changes to Senate filibuster rules and they promised not to support filibusters against any more of President Bush's judicial nominees. Upon the announcement by...

WASHINGTON - Democrats say the courtesy calls they've received from President Bush and his top aide, while appreciated, fall far short of the advice and consent consultations they expect before Bush announces a Supreme Court nominee. Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois got a call Wednesday from White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, who is with Bush in Europe for the Group of Eight summit. Card has also called Democratic Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Charles Schumer of New York and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, but no names of possible nominees were mentioned, according to their aides. The Democrats...

Don't look now, but the sky is falling. At least that's what the liberal interest groups that have mobilized this week in preparation for the battle over Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's replacement to the Supreme Court would have you believe. Within minutes of the announcement of O'Connor's retirement, the dinosaurs of the Left took to the airwaves to attempt to frame the debate. Planned Parenthood cried that "women's health and safety [are] on the line." People for the American Way shrieked that our "very national identity hangs in the balance." Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, declared...

Usually, any serious push toward making one a saint, or canonization, happens when that person is deceased. After a five-year waiting period--and the proof of a miracle or three--the candidate for sainthood is deemed to have “attained the blessedness of heaven and authorize the title ‘Blessed’ and limited public religious honor.” Miraculously enough, recently retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has been “sainted” by the mainstream media in less than one news cycle since her announcement on the morning of July 1. Even Pope John Paul II, whose five-year waiting period has been waived, is just beginning his journey...

List of Characteristics Important to Black Americans Cited Today's announcement of a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court provides President George W. Bush with an important duty that has the potential to affect judicial decision-making for generations to come. Members of the black leadership network Project 21 are calling upon the President to ensure that all nominees under consideration will preserve and protect the U.S Constitution. Peter Kirsanow, a Project 21 member and commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, said: "I'm confident that the President will nominate someone with integrity and wisdom who understands that the proper role...

EVALUATING STRICT CONSTRUCTIONISTS. How to Judge by Jeffrey Rosen Post date 11.22.04 | Issue date 11.29.04 [Sandra Day O'Connor said today that she is resigning from the Supreme Court. Last November, TNR published this guide to the possible replacements.] During his postelection press conference, President Bush made it clear that he intends to appoint a reliable "strict constructionist" to replace the ailing Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist if and when he retires. According to administration officials, there are eight candidates on Bush's short list, all of whom fit the bill. Senate Democrats will try to distinguish between conservatives and moderates...

My reaction to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement was almost as positive as my reaction in 1981 was negative when the Reagan administration announced that they were going to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court. It wouldn't matter if all nine Justices of the Supreme Court were women, if these were the nine best people available. But to decide in advance that you were going to appoint a woman and then look only among women for a nominee was a dangerous gamble with a court that has become dangerous enough otherwise. The recent outrageous Supreme Court decision making anyone's...

President Bush came to Washington with the goal of serving as a domestic reformer. In 2000, he became one of the few Republican candidates to focus less on defense and more on reforms to domestic social programs and public education. That was before 9/11, and the ensuing wars in the Middle East. Then, it appeared that the audacious Bush doctrine would set the pace for the ultimate legacy that will be George W. Bush. However, early into his second term, President Bush has another opportunity to leave behind a sturdy legacy in the form of the court system. In the...

The Supreme Court ends its work tomorrow with the highest of drama: an anticipated retirement, a ruling on the constitutionality of government Ten Commandments displays and decisions in other major cases. Traditionally, there is an air of suspense as the justices meet for the final time before breaking for three months. Justices usually wait until then to resolve blockbuster cases. Added to that is the expectation that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist is presiding over the court for the last time. Chief Justice Rehnquist has thyroid cancer and many court experts believe his retirement is imminent. Long lines have formed...

The days of the judicial-filibuster compromise are numbered. The scuttlebutt on Capitol Hill these days is that the McCain compromise will vanish as soon as a Supreme Court nomination appears. That's because the so-called compromise has that one huge loophole: It allows Democrats to filibuster (and thereby block an up-or-down vote on) any nominee they define as an "extraordinary" circumstance. And if Democrats' recent behavior is any indication, "extraordinary" will be used as a ruse for discriminating against judges who give even the slightest hint of holding pro-life views or having faith in God. "Any agreement that opens filibusters to...

Is it just the cynic in me, or are the planets lining up too perfectly for the next Supreme Court nominee(s)? For the past six years, I as I know some of you have marveled at the deft political maneuvers of our President and his political team. We have wondered silently and sometimes aloud on this site, “Wow…you couldn’t have planned that better if you tried. The hand of G_d must be on this man and his team”. Well, with the most recent major news events, I believe now, it is both. Maybe it’s my background as a professional marketer...

“He has loosed the fateful lightening of His terrible swift sword. He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat.” Those are two lines of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic“. Do they describe the current bunch of Republicans in Congress? As the Democrats continue to be mired in their out-of-power position, they have become more shrill, more audacious, more “in your face”. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois even compared our service people holding enemy combatants in Guantanamo to Hitler, Pol Pot, etc. He is unrepentant, but this is usual for the leftists. The Democrat Party was at...

Republicans, fresh off the confirmation of five judges to the Appeals court, are finally feeling some momentum on an issue that has been stalled by Democrats for years: Republicans say the confirmations of long-filibustered judges William Pryor, Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen, David McKeague and Richard Griffin for the U.S. Appeals Court show that President Bush can get conservatives on the nation's highest courts despite the objections of Democrats. And it can happen without Republicans voting to eliminate judicial filibusters, a move known as the "nuclear option" because of the intense rancor it would cause. Now that the filibuster tiger...

This isn't the first time we've written about a Senate tradition called the "hold," by which an individual Senator can delay indefinitely a Presidential nomination. It's an abuse of the Constitution's advice-and-consent power, and the Senate would be better off without it. This being a Republican administration, most of the current abusers are Democrats, who have announced holds on the head of the Food and Drug Administration, the Deputy Secretary of Interior, a Treasury Undersecretary and an Assistant Secretary of Defense, among other nominees. But sometimes Republicans get in on the bad behavior, and Kansas Senator Sam Brownback is now...

Not only is there a bright side for conservatives in the recent Senate “compromise” on Presidential appointments, but it’s hard to find any reason at all to justify celebration by liberal Democrats. President Bush’s long-stalled 5th Circuit nominee, Priscilla Owen, now sits on that federal bench, and confirmations of capable conservatives Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor are soon to follow. Even the prospective nominations of William Meyers and Henry Saad have been sidetracked in thought only. Make no mistake – the dam has cracked and its eventual collapse is as easy as ever to see. The seven Republican signatories...

Pardon me while I wipe the egg off my face. Last week I was one of a handful of conservatives praising the Senate compromise on judicial nominees, which preserved the filibuster while guaranteeing several of President Bush's most conservative nominees an up-or-down vote. I argued Democrats would be chastened into using the filibuster judiciously -- only "under extreme circumstances" in the words of the compromise itself. Boy was I wrong. In less than a week, the Democrats were back to their old tricks, filibustering John Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the United Nations. Democrat Sens. Robert Byrd of West Virginia,...

Like many, I was tempted to write with outrage about the sellout called compromise by seven Republican senators on the judicial filibuster issue this week. But what the heck. We Republicans have a man in the White House who would do John Wayne and Gary Cooper proud. Most of our Representatives in the House don’t need bloodhounds to find their spines. And Arnold Schwarzenegger, God bless him, is governor of California. We send most of our girlie-men to the Senate - and there’s only seven left there. Time to give thanks for small blessings, I suppose. Here’s a little quiz:...

So much for the new era of good feeling. As last week began, 14 Senators struck a deal to save the judicial filibuster by giving three of President Bush's judicial nominees an up-or-down vote. By week's end, Senate Democrats began a filibuster on John Bolton's nomination for U.N. ambassador. If you were among those who believed the deal on judges heralded a new spirit of Congressional bipartisanship, consider yourself disabused. The latest line of attack against Mr. Bolton is that, as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control, he seems to have expressed views about Syria's WMD capabilities at variance with...

Blaring from network and cable TV: “Democrats forced the Senate to put off a final vote this week on John R. Bolton’s nomination to be U.N. ambassador, the latest setback for the tough-talking nominee President Bush has called "strong medicine for corruption and inefficiency at the United Nations.” This was done by another filibuster that might delay the vote until June, thus shattering the myth that the two parties had joined together in a bond of trust that would end the obstruction that has kept Bush appointees from getting an up and down vote. When is Bill Frist, the Senate...

A federal judge in New York told the Defense Department yesterday that it would have to release perhaps dozens of photographs taken by an American soldier of Iraqi detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The judge, Alvin K. Hellerstein, said at a hearing that photographs would be the "best evidence" in the public debate about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib. The hearing... came in a [FOIA] suit filed by the [ACLU].... In response to the suit the government has already released more than 36,000 pages of documents that shed sometimes dramatic light...

The filibuster is far from dead in the Senate. Putting a fitting exclamation point on weeks of bitter partisan fighting, Democrats initiated a stunningly successful procedural attack on Thursday against one of President Bush's high-profile nominees, just days after an unusual compromise averted a showdown over the right to filibuster judicial candidates. Vote to End Debate on Bolton Nomination (May 26, 2005) The vote against cutting off debate over the confirmation of John R. Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations, just as Congress was recessing for Memorial Day, left Republicans fuming and showed there is still some distance...

This bipartisan deal cut by Sen. John McCain is noxious. No, the issue isn’t judges. (Or campaign finance, or health care, or any number of other things.) It’s illegal immigration and a proposal that has just been cooked up by the Arizona maverick and the Massachusetts non-maverick Sen. Ted Kennedy to grant an amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants. Under the bill, illegals would have to work in the U.S. — which they are already doing — for six years as legal temporary workers, then they would be eligible to apply for green cards. Also, a new category of guest...

The deal to avert a change in Senate cloture rules is more than just a temporary outbreak of sanity in this highly charged partisan accelerator chamber. It amounts to a transfer of leadership from the polarized, party leaders to the narrow but critical center of the institution. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) still has the corner office, and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) still has the key to the executive washroom, but it is the 14 senators who crafted this deal who now are the people to see in the Senate. Few realized that when the Republicans garnered 55 seats...