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Stephanopoulos pushes for Gonzales on his Sunday show.
ABC News/ George Stephanopoulos | July 3, 2005 | colonel mosby

Posted on 07/03/2005 8:14:34 AM PDT by colonel mosby

George Stephanopoulos joined the growing left-wing chorus this morning, pushing for the Supreme Court nomination of Alberto Gonzales on his weekly Sunday show.

In a cleverly worded question to Newt Gingrich, Stephanopoulos asked if it would be better for George W. Bush to go ahead and nominate Gonzales for the O'Connor seat, or appoint and appease the conservatives with a "hardliner" now, and appoint Gonzales at a later date.

Cokie Roberts and Walter Dellinger, the other two panelists on the Stephanopoulos show whose liberal voices were necessary to balance out Gingrich, both pushed for either Gonzales or a nominee who has held elective office. Cokie Roberts liked the idea of Elizabeth Dole, probably because she is an aging "moderate".

MoveOn.Org can save themselves a lot of advertising money by pulling all of their TV ads. The network talking heads are carrying the water for the advancement of a liberal agenda and, as usual, it's very transparent.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: donteventhinkaboutit; gonzales; scotus; stephanopoulos
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To: EDINVA

Go to www.senate.gov and follow the links to the Judiciary Committee. Next in line is Hatch but he may have another committee. That would mean Kyl of AZ would follow, etc.


61 posted on 07/03/2005 3:11:39 PM PDT by paddles
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To: paddles

Hatch was Chairman and had to step down at the beginning of this Congress due to GOP adopted rules about how long anyone could serve as Chairman ... so I guess the answer is Kyl. That would be a good thing.


62 posted on 07/03/2005 4:27:17 PM PDT by EDINVA
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To: EDINVA

Ah yes, that's right. I suppose Kyl would be good, though he lacks experience. Just ask Bill Frist!


63 posted on 07/03/2005 4:53:03 PM PDT by paddles
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To: colonel mosby

Alberto Gonzales would be a fine pick to replace Ruth B. Ginsberg.


64 posted on 07/03/2005 5:06:49 PM PDT by ncpatriot
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To: colonel mosby

I'm sure he and the other Dems will be doing it because they know it will rile Conservatives.


65 posted on 07/03/2005 5:09:43 PM PDT by SuziQ
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To: ncpatriot

WP.com


Conservatives have long been wary of Gonzales. The journal Human Events accused him of sounding "like Mario Cuomo." The National Review said a joke among GOP aides in the Senate was "Gonzales is Spanish for Souter," a reference to David H. Souter, the Supreme Court justice nominated by President George H.W. Bush who joined the court's liberal wing.

The distrust dates from Gonzales's days on the Texas Supreme Court in 2000, when he joined a majority of the judges in upholding a pregnant teenager's right to seek an abortion without notifying her parents. Taking aim at two conservative dissenters in the case, Gonzales wrote that they were engaged in "unconscionable judicial activism."

Those words came back to haunt Bush when he appointed one of the two dissenters, Priscilla R. Owen, to a federal appeals court -- and Senate Democrats threw Gonzales's words back in the White House's face. The Owen nomination failed.

Gonzales also has squabbled with conservatives in the administration over affirmative action. When the use of race in admissions at the University of Michigan came before the Supreme Court in 2003, Gonzales argued fiercely that the administration should not take a hard-line position in favor of the white students who were claiming that the school had made them victims of "reverse discrimination."

This put him at odds with administration conservatives led by Ashcroft and then-Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson, but Gonzales ultimately prevailed in the sense that the administration ended up pressing a narrow argument that objected only to the way in which Michigan had pursued diversity, not to the diversity rationale for affirmative action itself. The court sided with the Michigan law school in a 5 to 4 ruling.

Behind the scenes, Gonzales clashed frequently with Ashcroft's Justice Department. He felt blindsided when Ashcroft, early in the administration, announced that the department would embrace, for the first time ever, a view of the Second Amendment that regards gun possession as an individual right on a par with freedom of speech or religion.

Gonzales and Ashcroft were in an ongoing wrangle over control of the pivotal Office of Legal Counsel, the Justice Department's in-house adviser on constitutional matters. The OLC became particularly important after Sept. 11, 2001, when the administration was pushing for new legal authority to pursue the war on terrorism. Gonzales's most public controversy was his role in administration memos regarding the treatment of prisoners taken in the war on terrorism.

But many of the controversies on his watch were less his doing than those of underlings and other young conservative lawyers in the administration.

"I don't think he's ever really had a chance to express his views on major policy issues," said Edwin Meese III, the Reagan administration attorney general now with the Heritage Foundation. "The job of the White House counsel is to be an attorney." If he goes from being the president's abogado to the country's, all signs are that Gonzales would remain faithful -- not necessarily to conservative ideology, but to Bush.

Staff writer Charles Lane contributed to this report.


66 posted on 07/03/2005 5:11:03 PM PDT by Rome2000 (Peace is not an option)
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To: Rome2000
I wonder what the President likes about him?

I wonder what the President sees in him?

67 posted on 07/03/2005 5:24:04 PM PDT by ncpatriot
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To: ncpatriot
W might as well resign if he nominates Gonzalez.

It isn't going to happen.

68 posted on 07/03/2005 5:31:23 PM PDT by Rome2000 (Peace is not an option)
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To: colonel mosby

Juan Williams was pushing for Gonzales on Fox News Sunday.

But maybe it's all a trap - the Republican base will oppose Gonzales or at least sit on its hands; then the Democrats can turn around and defeat Gonzales so as to humiliate Bush and make him look like a lame duck.

Beware of Greeks (or Democrats) bearing gifts.


69 posted on 07/03/2005 5:53:14 PM PDT by DianeDePoitiers
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To: paddles

Kyl's been around since around '86 .. I remember his first run for Congress. I'm not nearly so concerned with long term experience as judgment and philosophy, and just plain old decency with the smarts not to get snookered by the likes of Leaky. Is that too much to ask ?


70 posted on 07/03/2005 6:23:23 PM PDT by EDINVA
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To: colonel mosby
All the beltway pundits are in a lather over Gonzales because of political considerations. They see him as a Brown Face, a Friend of W., a pick to cater to Hispanics.

All those considerations should be chucked out of the window by President Bush. The only considerations for him should be the ones he promised to nominate judges on. Are the qualified. Are they strict constructionists. Will they apply and interpret the law, not make it. Period.

If he does this, then his choice will truly affect the Nation for the better. If he goes for the shallow politically expedient choice, we'll get another Souter.
71 posted on 07/03/2005 7:01:03 PM PDT by LexBaird (tyrannosaurus Lex, unapologetic carnivore)
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To: ncpatriot
I wonder what the President likes about him?

I wonder what the President sees in him?

JMO, but it's connected to race.

The coveted "hispanic vote" and all.

La Raza supports Gonzales, so..

72 posted on 07/03/2005 7:05:43 PM PDT by k2blader (Was it wrong to kill Terri Shiavo? YES - 83.8%. FR Opinion Poll.)
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