Posted on 07/07/2005 6:31:52 PM PDT by ovrtaxt
With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff
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Thursday, July 7, 2005 2:34 p.m. EDT
Novak: Bush's Gonzales Support Frightening
Charging that President Bush may be an obstacle to appointing a conservative Supreme Court justice, columnist Robert Novak chastised the president for his remarks defending Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Novak fears Bush's remarks will be seen as a signal that the president intends to name him to fill the vacated seat of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Noting that Sen. Kennedy has managed to establish in the media's warped minds a new standard for "mainstream conservatism" by citing the liberal O'Connor as a genuine conservative, Novak wrote that by contrast, the president "has put forth 'friendship' as a qualification for being named to the high court."
According to Novak, Both Kennedy's and Bush's statements left conservative Republicans, who he recalls have spent more than a decade planning for this moment to change the balance of power on the Supreme Court, reeling from blows delivered by two dissimilar political leaders.
As a result, Novak wrote, it's not Kennedy who is the bigger obstacle to a conservative court, but the president himself.
"While Kennedy's ploy presents a temporary problem, Bush's stance could be fatal," according to Novak. "The Right's morale was devastated by the president's comments in a USA Today telephone interview published on the newspaper's front page Tuesday: 'Al Gonzales is a great friend of mine. When a friend gets attacked, I don't like it.'"
To Novak's politically sensitive ears, that sounded as if Bush, whom he called a stubborn man, might go ahead and nominate Gonzales "in the face of deep and broad opposition from the president's own political base."
Added to the mix is the strong probability that ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist is on the verge of announcing his retirement.
Such a scenario may give Bush the idea he has political cover to appoint Gonzalez.
As Novak puts it, Bush could "name one justice no less conservative than Rehnquist, and name Gonzales, whose past record suggests he would replicate retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on abortion and possibly other social issues."
If Bush would do this, Novak says, it would be a massive defeat for conservatives because "the present ideological orientation of the court would be unchanged, which would suit the Left just fine."
Novak also noted that O'Connor was not considered a conservative when she was nominated 24 years ago, and writes that "the worst fears about her were realized by her consistently liberal positions on social issues. With Democrats now setting a new standard for conservatism, Republican senators could only bite their lips and praise her."
Novak conceded that Gonzales "would not exactly be another O'Connor, but he is still considered a disaster by Republican conservatives."
"Gonzales trial balloons were shot down on the right, but that has not stopped leaks from the White House." If a Rehnquist vacancy now is thrown into the mix, Novak asked, would Bush be tempted to temporize by naming one conservative and one non-conservative?
"Consequently, Bush's USA Today interview has been a source of intense anxiety on the right. Typically, the president did not defend Gonzales on his merits but with outrage that anybody would dare criticize his friend. That reflects a general schoolboy attitude that is losing the president support from fellow Republicans and conservatives."
What a novel concept. Opposing someone but doing so without lying about them.
"Novak is a country club, capitalist RINO. He does not care for the social conservative wing in the Pub party."
I thought he was a run of the mill right winger, albeit one of the more "olde" conservative variety.
"Everybody cool their jets .. Gonzales said today - HE IS 'NOT A CANDIDATE'!"
Cooling the jets prevents people from shooting down said trial Gonzales balloons.
Perhaps that is what you wish to achive, in an indirect dishonest way?
Silence on the SCOTUS issue is tacit approval for "business as usual."
Well .. since you don't know me - I'll excuse your ignorance.
no, his clumns over many years only support Reublicans if they are fiscal conservatists, ie capitalists, or the like.
He always refers to social conservatism in a negative light, at odds with the Republican Party and basically out of touch with the mainstream.
He also hates Bush I and Bush II.
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