Posted on 11/04/2004 3:56:03 AM PST by joesbucks
PHILADELPHIA -- The Republican expected to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee next year bluntly warned newly re-elected President Bush today against putting forth Supreme Court nominees who would seek to overturn abortion rights or are otherwise too conservative to win confirmation.
Sen. Arlen Specter, fresh from winning a fifth term in Pennsylvania, also said the current Supreme Court now lacks legal "giants" on the bench.
"When you talk about judges who would change the right of a woman to choose, overturn Roe v. Wade, I think that is unlikely," Specter said, referring to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
"The president is well aware of what happened, when a bunch of his nominees were sent up, with the filibuster," Specter added, referring to Senate Democrats' success over the past four years in blocking the confirmation of many of Bush's conservative judicial picks. "... And I would expect the president to be mindful of the considerations which I am mentioning."
With at least three Supreme Court justices rumored to be eyeing retirement, including ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Specter, 74, would have broad authority to reshape the nation's highest court. He would have wide latitude to schedule hearings, call for votes and make the process as easy or as hard as he wants.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., expressed confidence Wednesday that Bush will have more success his second term in winning the confirmation of his judicial nominees.
"I'm very confident that now we've gone from 51 seats to 55 seats, we will be able to overturn this what has become customary filibuster of judicial nominees," Frist said in Orlando, Fla.
Legal scholar Dennis Hutchinson said Specter's message to the White House appears to be "a way of asserting his authority" as he prepares to chair the Judiciary Committee when Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is term-limited from keeping the post next year.
"What he may be trying to do is say, 'Don't just think that I'm going to process what you send through. I have standards, I'm going to take an independent look, you have to deal with me,'" said Hutchinson, a law professor at the University of Chicago.
When asked Wednesday about Specter's impending chairmanship, another Republican on the panel, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, did not offer a ringing endorsement.
"We'll have to see where he stands," said Cornyn, a close friend of Bush who worked to get all of the president's nominees through the Senate. "I'm hoping that he will stand behind the president's nominees. I'm intending to sit down and discuss with him how things are going to work. We want to know what he's going do and how things are going to work."
While Specter is a loyal Republican -- Bush endorsed him in a tight Pennsylvania GOP primary -- he routinely crosses party lines to pass legislation and counts a Democrat, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, as one of his closest friends.
A self-proclaimed moderate, he helped kill President Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court and of Jeff Sessions to a federal judgeship. Specter called both nominees too extreme on civil rights issues. Sessions later became a Republican senator from Alabama and now sits on the Judiciary Committee with Specter.
Despite a bruising challenge from conservatives this year in Pennsylvania's GOP primary, Specter won re-election Tuesday by an 11-point margin by appealing to moderate Republicans and ticket-splitting Democrats, even as Pennsylvania chose Democrat John Kerry over Bush.
A former district attorney, Specter also bemoaned what he called the lack of any current justices comparable to legal heavyweights like Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo and Thurgood Marshall, "who were giants of the Supreme Court."
"With all due respect to the (current) U.S. Supreme Court, we don't have one," he said.
Though he refused to describe the political leanings of the high court, Specter said he "would characterize myself as moderate; I'm in the political swim. I would look for justices who would interpret the Constitution, as Cardozo has said, reflecting the values of the people
...kick him off the committee...<<--..YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Bush and Rove's biggest mistake, backing this ahole in the hopes he could help capture PA...I cannot stand this RINO POS.
What he said.
... ~eh?
Sorry... I mean't Sphincter
Please help me--what can I do to get him off the Judiciary Committee???
At this point, I vote for "C"- 55 Senators and someone besides Specter or Hatch chairing Judiciary.
Specter has not kept his part of the bargain.
Time to replace him with someone who will.
Hindsight is 20-20. Now that it was shown to be a complete waste of time, we need to do everything possible to limit the damage and get this back-stabbing liberal off the Senate Judiciary committee.
Specter, the wolf in sheep's clothing.
The man spends his earlier years defending a famous murderer and then becomes a senator. No respect for this guy from the get go.
He can threaten all he wants. He's not the only guy on the hill.
Bingo. But I am wondering just where W stands on this, really. Lip Service is one thing, but campaigning for Specter says much more, much louder. It's not as if this is a surprise to anyone.
Wonder if he's seen THIS ?
Specter is the classic RINO. He's been making the threats to Bush on Supreme nominees since well before the election.
With the majority they now have and with "values" having turned out to be one of the key issues that brought people out to vote Republican there is now NO EXCUSE for the party to fail in getting most of its agenda enacted. Obstruction from leftists of either party must not be tolerated. Specter has no "right" to the chairmanship and if he is given it and proves to be an obstruction he needs to be removed and a man like Kyl put in his place.
President Bush must lead on this as I doubt (based on past performance) that Frist will do so. Many of us out here who gave our time and money to the party are expecting that the party will now act like it is the majority party. Accomodation and compromise on the little things can be tolerated but judicial appointments are not little things. Next to the war they are the most important issue we face. Whether or not the Republicans can control their own and impose the discipline necessary to get the job done is going to be a crucial test in determining whether or not they continue to hold the majority after 2006, 2008 and into the future.
Please note who has a "litmus test" for judges. Libs constantly complain about a conservative litmus test, when in reality, theirs is just as strong if not stronger!
E-mail, write, fax Senator Frist, your Senator if conservative, President Bush, and any other Senator you might think is conservative. This is up to the GOP Senate leadership. President Bush can use his influece here too.
Examine this statement and one is looking into the soul of a liberal.
The Constitution is not meant to be interpretetd to reflect the values of the people. It is meant to be interpreted to reflect the intent of the law itself.
This is where these people see the Constitution as a "living, breathing document", that can be changed simply because (as an example) radical feminists want the right to kill unborn babies as a convenience.
The old man may not be here long enough to have any say about it.
Hell, he's as old as many of those on the court.
Bush warns Specter that people mysteriously just up and "disappear" every single day, in this country.
Even senators, sometimes.
Y'know. :)
The Republicans need to oust Arelen Specter. Make him a Democrat becasue that is exactly what he is. Specter was the cause of PA going to Kerry. Small margin was Specter liberal crap. I don't like this man at all.
Arlen, you too can be replaced !
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