Posted on 09/08/2005 4:43:05 PM PDT by Leroy S. Mort
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush should consult with senators before making his choice to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Democratic leaders said Thursday.
Meanwhile, first lady Laura Bush is elbowing her husband once again to nominate a woman and others are pushing for a Hispanic.
The White House is working on finding a replacement for O'Connor, one of the swing votes on the Supreme Court. It took the Bush administration 18 days to make its initial choice after O'Connor announced her retirement.
Bush initially nominated federal appellate judge John Roberts to succeed O'Connor, but on Monday nominated him to succeed Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who died Saturday. Roberts, who will make his last courtesy visits to senators on Friday, will begin his confirmation hearing on Monday.
``We call on you to engage in meaningful consultation with us to identify a candidate for this crucial position who will unite the country, not divide it,'' said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other Democrats in a letter to the White House.
Mrs. Bush, in an interview Thursday with American Urban Radio Networks, said she didn't think the president would announce his nominee for the second vacancy until after the Roberts confirmation process.
``I think the president is going to wait until John Roberts is confirmed before he nominates the next person,'' said Mrs. Bush, who was rooting for a female nominee when Bush nominated Roberts. ``As a woman myself, I hope it will be a woman.''
Democrats want Bush to look for a consensus nominee like O'Connor.
``I hope the next nominee selected meets the high standards set by Justice O'Connor, reveres and treasures the freedoms on which our nation was built, and can bring the nation together as she has done often,'' said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., in a separate letter to the White House.
The Hispanic National Bar Association is strongly urging the president to nominate a Hispanic.
``The time in our country's history has come where our Supreme Court needs to better reflect the diversity of America,'' said Alan Varela, president of the Hispanic Bar. ``President Bush bypassed the estimated 41.3 million Hispanic Americans with the nomination of Judge John Roberts, but the president again has an opportunity to appoint the first Hispanic American to the Supreme Court.''
If I were President I'd nominate the most conservative minority woman I could find and laugh while the Democrats wailed and moaned about it.
Works for me!!!!
Holding up three fingers (index/middle/ring) stating to the dembots
Read between the lines........
The Republican party won the last two elections! Republicans control Congress. The Democrats have been screwing up this country for the last 30 years and we have a chance now to rectify that.
Bush can't run for a 3rd term so why doesn't he just go on prime time and tell those who would assail him to screw off.
No.
The judge should be another person like John Roberts or William Rehnquist - someone with a deep respect for the traditions of American jurisprudence.
I trust common people more than I trust Ivy League lawyers. I would prefer to be ruled over by farmers from Idaho than lawyers from Massachusetts and Connecticut.
There is no requirement that a member of the Supreme Court be a lawyer. And being a lawyer is no guarantee that you understand or will follow the law. Indeed, sometimes it is a hindrance. In fact, most times.
Men are not granted wisdom because they went to Yale or Harvard. They have wisdom because it is granted to them by God. In my life I have heard more wisdom from the mouths of gas station attendants and janitors than I have seen expressed in the opinions of most of the justices who have ever sat upon our supreme court.
Earl Warren was a governor of California. Look what that got us. Maybe we should call for an Amendment: NO CURRENT OR FORMER POLITICIANS ON THE SC
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