Kristol warns: Bush wants Gonzales for Chief Justice

Fox News Sunday | July 10, 2005 | colonel mosby

[colonel mosby]

William Kristol, who correctly predicted that O'Connor would retire before Rehnquist, now has a dire prediction. Kristol claims that Rehnquist will retire this week, and that Bush operatives are already clearing the way to nominate Alberto Gonzales for new Chief Justice. Kristol made the comments on Fox News Sunday, as part of the four member discussion panel.

According to this train of thought, according to Kristol, the White House believes that it can avoid Congressional conflict by appointing a moderate like Gonzales, and then balance it by naming a true conservative to replace O'Connor. This would effectively leave the current "balance of the court" intact.

Panelists Juan Williams and CeCe Connolly applauded this notion, and felt it was a worthy compromise. However, panelist Charles Krauthammer warned that appointing Gonzales to the court would be a huge mistake because, by doing so, Bush would "betray his base" and "betray his promises".

William Kristol said that a Gonzales appointment, or any moderate appointment, would be "incredibly demoralizing" and "disastrous" for George W. Bush, because it would completely alienate his conservative base, and cause a terrible fracture in the Republican Party.

There is more than one hurricane on the horizon.

[Osage Orange]

2. Democrats will never play nice if anyone tries to compromise with them.

Let me help you out here...as it appeared to me you got a bit too wordy.

2. Democrats will never play nice. Period.

[johnb838]

There is no arm-twisting once a SCJOTSC is seated. Then they are "almost like god."

[Romish_Papist]

"...why did you vote for him and thus trust him to make other decisions as president (assuming you did vote for him)?"

Because he promised us conservatives on the bench. If he appoints Gonzales then he will have lied to us. How difficult is this to understand?

[johnb838]

Hopefully Gonzales is more helping to pick the nominees than be one. I realize that's how Cheney got the nod, but there was no one better. There are much better lawyers/judges for the court than Gonzo. There just are.

[johnb838]

What you got to do is, you know the rats are going to attack no matter what you do, so you got to decide which side you want them to attack from and act accordingly.

[superiorslots]

Quote: Maybe this was planned all along. Get him in as a pro choicer and then have W twist his arm into voting pro life. It could happen.



Yeah right! Bush has been anything but conservative except on the WOT.

[billnaz]

"Anyone who believes that the Second Amendment allows for the outlawing of some rifles because they have a bayonet lug on them (just the little piece of metal for attaching a bayonet, not even the bayonet itself) is unsuited to be a judge, or Attorney General, anywhere in the US."

Thanks for the info on Gonzales. I knew his record on gun rights was bad. I didn't know it was THAT bad. If he got on the court most of my collection would be in danger of confiscation.

[Romish_Papist]

"He has shown great leadership and thoughtfulness with many (if not all) of his decisions as CIC / POTUS..."

Really? How about the borders? What about CFR?

[Romish_Papist]

"they last thing he deserves is a bunch of whining so called "supporters" hounding him about he "will abandon them"."

Then he needs to NOT abandon those of us who PUT HIM THERE! Dubya's a big boy, he can take the heat when his supporters raise the b.s. flag.

[sarasotarepublican]

Because Bush picked up a very small number of new Blacks and Hispanic voters, he won the White House. Remember, he beat Kerry by one state. The democrats have been weakened, but they are finished yet.

Bush has disappointed me in his lack of strengthening the Republican party by his lack of using the microphone to call them on so many of their lies. He is always looking for the high ground. In politics, that is a mistake. Clinton was a master at it. Not to mention the help from the media. The democrats still hold that winning card. Public opinion is very easily manipulated. These fake polls need to be challenged.

WHERE ARE THE TALKING POINTS for the Republican Party? We have only a few that are on message. I just wish McCain would SHUT THE H UP!

[SteveH]

There's only ONE party ... with a first string and a second string! ... And, that party has pretty effectively shut off the emergence of a real opposition party!

You may have heard the term, "RINO"...

It means, "claim to be a Republican, talk like a Republican, and otherwise act exactly like a Democrat, or worse."

This type of politician exists and thrives because-- believe it or not-- there are voters out there who think that party affiliation is more important than actions.

;-)

[John Robertson]

"Also, with some exceptions, this has been a fairly conservative court for the past generation."

Yeah. Except for the removal of all Christian symbols from most "public" places (and most prayer, in most places, or anything that smacks even slightly of Christianity); and the entrenchment of reverse-racism quotas, the siezure of your house to put up a knicknack store, and the endorsement of sodomy between two consenters...we're really kicking ass, aren't we?

[Ol' Sparky]

Karl Rove and the Republicans in Congress can let Bush know that Gonzales or anything less than doing what he promised to do is unacceptable. If Bush decides to nominate Gonzales anyway, than 51 can vote against him.

But, the Senate Republicans aren't innocent in all this. They were the ones that agreed to the filibuster deal that prevented several originalists from being appointed to appeals courts.

[Credo]

Kristol got lucky with O'Connor. Gonzales has significant problems in hearing cases as a Justice. He would probably have to recuse himself on a large number of items due to his being AG and White House Counsel.

Although President Bush has been disappointing to some extent on domestic issues, Judicial nominations and tax cuts have not been a source of disappointment. His appointments to Circuit judges has given Democrats apoplexy. Why would he be different with a Supreme choice?

[Paloma_55]

Attacking another Republican is not going to win us anything

How's Arlen Specter workin' out for ya?

Not.

But then, in the Northeast, lets see if we can get a conservative Republican elected...oops.. not gonna happen.

To be honest, I think Specter is better than McCain. Specter is liberal. McCain is a traitor.

That said, Bush gets the call. We should convince him of the positive options rather than attack Gonzales which will only piss him off.

[inquest]

You've never seen it?

No, I haven't seen conservative critics of Bush threaten to vote Hillary. I've seem them threaten not to vote Republican plenty of times, though. Somehow, I don't think you're incapable of telling the difference, though there are a number of you here who pretend to be.

[inquest]

We should convince him of the positive options rather than attack Gonzales which will only piss him off.

Why should it concern us if it does? We don't work for him. A lot of people seem to be forgetting who's the boss, and who's the employee.

[Paloma_55]

We should convince him of the positive options rather than attack Gonzales which will only piss him off.

Why should it concern us if it does? We don't work for him. A lot of people seem to be forgetting who's the boss, and who's the employee.

Ever have an employee that hit the lottery and no longer needed the money?

Bush is a lame duck. Threatening to leave the party won't influence him.

[Lancelot Jones]

"The dissenting opinions suggest that the exceptions to the general rule of notification should be very rare and require a high standard of proof. I respectfully submit that these are policy decisions for the legislature," Gonzales wrote. In the same passage he concluded: "Thus, to construe the Parental Notification Act so narrowly as to eliminate bypasses, or to create hurdles that simply are not to be found in the words of the statute, would be an unconscionable act of judicial activism."

Alberto Gonzales crafted a decision based on the letter of the statute, as written by the Texas legislature.

That does not make him a bad Judge, it makes him a great Judge.

Owens and the dissenters wanted to render a decision based on verbiage which was not included in the statute by the legislators, but rather on how they "felt" about the subject; when liberal Judges engage in such actions, conservatives call it judicial activism.

We should call it the same thing when conservative Judges engage in it.

If the language of the Texas Parental Notification Law is not crafted to suit the wishes of the more conservative segments of Texas conservatives, they need to urge their legislators to change the law. What they should not be doing is demanding judicial activism, or legislation from the bench.

Beauseant!

[inquest]

Bush is a lame duck. Threatening to leave the party won't influence him.

You don't think he cares about the political future of his allies? I bet he does.

But if he doesn't, then that fact needs to be stated loudly and clearly, so that he can't pretend to have any legitimacy.