Leahy Braces for Top Court Nominee Fight

AP ^ | 7/16/5 | DONNA CASSATA

[SmithL]

WASHINGTON, (AP) --

If a fight breaks out over President Bush's pick for the Supreme Court, Sen. Patrick Leahy will be the razor's edge of the Democratic resistance, answering a demand in his party for sharp elbows and a tart tongue.

Hopeful talk of consultation and consensus has peppered the political dialogue since Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced on July 1 that she will retire. Few in Washington, however, are under the illusion that this upbeat tone will last.

The expectation is that Bush's choice for a nominee will touch off a fierce partisan fight. Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is battle-ready.

Elected to the Senate in the post-Watergate class of 1974, the Vermont senator has voted to confirm seven of the current justices, did not back Clarence Thomas' nomination and opposed elevating William Rehnquist from associate justice to chief justice.

[SmithL]

Oh-No! The Leaky one is battle-ready?

[quantim]

I wish this was an election year.

[dts32041]

Must of went to wall mart.

[stocksthatgoup]

Leahy has got a fresh box of Depends.

[lilylangtree]

Oh dear, is Leahy the front man for the worm Specter?

[Zuben Elgenubi]

"... Sen. Patrick Leahy will be the razor's edge of the Democratic resistance ..."

Oh, Boy.

[Political Junkie Too]

I wonder: has Leahy kept a low profile on the Plame affair?

It may be that he's the least tainted high-profile Democrat available to be the front-person for judicial picks. I can see people asking how the Democrats can be credible in their outrage over Bush's nomination after relenting on claims that his earlier picks are outside the mainstream, and then claiming that Karl Rove leaked Plame's name when it turns out to be reporters.

I'd ask why we're to believe Democrats now when they were proven false many times before.

-PJ

[airborne]

Leahy opposes anyone to the right of Joe Leiberman.

[Pukin Dog]

Someone should just slip him a water pill.

[alloysteel]

And it makes absolutely NO difference WHO George W. Bush nominates, the resistance to accepting that nominee will equally as fierce whether, say, John Ashcroft, or the Carl M. Loeb University Professor Laurence H. Tribe at Harvard Law School may be the person sent up for consideration.

It is a reflexive thing, and the Democrats cannot stop. If Bush puts a name up, it must be rejected out of hand. Especially for the Supreme Court.

[leprechaun9]

Leaky Leahy probably has already distributed many raw FBI files (obtained from Billy and Hitlery) on several of the possible nominees for the Hate-the-United States crowd to jam the media.

Leahy, one of the leading pillars of the Democrap Party, should really be thrown out of the Senate for leaking Classifed information, not just suspended from being on the Committee for a couple of years!

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Leahy, AKA one dull blade.

[Saint Reagan]

He said he hopes Bush chooses a nominee whom nearly every senators could endorse.

"I think the whole country could breathe a sigh of relief," Leahy said in an interview with The Associated Press.

What exactly does this mean? Someone who has no position on any issue?

[NormsRevenge]

What will Leaky Leahy say if the President nominates Janice Rogers Brown to the SCOTUS?