Posted on 09/27/2005 7:46:53 AM PDT by SmithL
Washington -- Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a pro-choice Republican, strongly warned President Bush Monday against any "sharp turns" as he ponders a second Supreme Court vacancy.
The prospect of that looming vacancy overshadowed the opening of Senate debate on Judge John Roberts, headed for easy confirmation to be 17th Chief Justice of the United States, replacing the late William Rehnquist, a conservative stalwart who died earlier this month.
Bush is expected to name his choice for the second and far more pivotal vacancy left by retiring centrist Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as soon as the Senate votes to confirm Roberts later this week.
Activists on both sides predicted all-out political war over the O'Connor seat. O'Connor, a former Arizona lawmaker appointed by President Ronald Reagan as the first woman on the court, was the key vote in a string of 5-4 decisions supporting abortion and affirmative action.
The potential for a Democratic filibuster and Senate showdown is much greater for the next nominee than it proved to be with Roberts, an appellate judge with sterling credentials who won over conservatives but confounded liberals while explicitly shunning ideology in his hearings.
Warning of the coming fight, Specter said the rule of law is "really structured on stability ... and it is enhanced by really, really no sharp turns."
Specter is a powerful player in the nomination process. An abortion rights supporter from Pennsylvania, Specter just won a new six-year term in the Senate, is battling cancer and loathes the conservative activists who tried to deny him his long-coveted chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Specter's support of Justice Clarence Thomas, narrowly confirmed in 1991, and his opposition to Robert Bork in 1987, who was denied confirmation, proved crucial in those nomination battles.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Senator "Spectre" is nothing more than a R.I.N.O. BUMP!
Specter's an a$$. His lack of power and influence will be for all to see when Bush nominates a good solid conservative and he/she is confirmed, Specter's ridiculous super duper precedents notwithstanding.
...strongly warned President Bush Monday against any "sharp turns" as he ponders a second Supreme Court vacancy.
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Sharp turns? Specter should be invited to the Oval Office to explain his THREAT. Who the hell does this maggot think he is? Regardless of the fact that Specter should NEVER have been put in the position he is in, what could Bush do other than EXACTLY what he is doing now? He wants law-abiding justices...which, of course, IS NOT WHAT THE LEFT WANTS... who is Specter speaking for? Schumer, Feinstein, Pelosi, Kennedy, etc?
I'm sure he means "sharp left turns".
Specter proves my long held belief that gratitude is the least felt human emotion even though, it's among the most valuable.
Someday President Bush is going to wake up and learn that no matter what he does, his opponents are going to attack him. Better then to shoot straight and do what he think is right rather than what seems politically beneficial.
He never should have helped Specter get re-elected. Better to have lost the seat than to have supported someone who undermines him from within and is used by the MSM to beat him over the head - dissension in the ranks is always as trumpeted loudly and often by the MSM.
Specter's just playing to his constituents. He's buffing up his "pro-choice moderate" credentials. At the end of the day he was Republican enough to support John Roberts. Isn't that all that matters right now?
I predcit that W will name Roberts' wife as the replacement for SDO'C....this way the government can save the cost of a limo and driver
Will he support Judge Brown?
Specter may just be insuring the Roberts vote doesn't hit a bump in the road.
At the end of the day he was Republican enough to support John Roberts. Isn't that all that matters right now?
Yes. But he can't be trusted. He wasn't Republican enough to support Bork and Reagan (who swept him into office in 1980). Having just come off a re-election campaign (as now), he was free to betray. And he's already started the democrat's dirty work with his speech yesterday. He cannot abide conservatives but he can't survive without them.
If past is prologue, Bush will continue to bring his pocket knife to political gun fights.
A conservative with an adequate level of testosterone in the White House would be nice.
Part of the fairly serious problem here is Specter is not the only RINO we have to worry about. There needs to be considerable thought given to how we get rid of the Bobsie twins from Maine and other RINOS who are pro-abortion. IMHO that issue can be used to great advantage to dislodge them if framed correctly but as long as they remain or until we elect five or more new solid conservatives to the senate we still have risk of a nominee openly opposed to ROE being shot down by our own party. Borked by Specter and others.
While it is my opinion that the president is the chief player in the appointment process, I'm impressed that the Senate has a powerful role because of the word "consent."
The "recess appointment" power of the president gives him the trump card, but such an appointment doesn't enjoy lifetime status.
The Senate is in Republican hands, sort of. Specter is a problem, so are the McCain Rino crew. They are enough to put this process in the hands of the moderates.
President Bush should not fight the battle at this time. It is a loss. He should find a nominee who is to the right of O'Connor, but not far to the right. If O'Conner is a 4.5 on a conservative scale, then Bush should find someone who's a 6.0.
He should take the chance NOW to give us a slightly more conservative Scotus.
Then he should hope for another vacancy prior to the midterm elections. If that were to happen, he could appoint a real conservative and use that as an issue to moilize the base for the mid-terms. Who knows, it could lead to conservatives gaining a filibuster proof Senate.
Make that "is required".
President Bush should not fight the battle at this time. It is a loss. He should find a nominee who is to the right of O'Connor, but not far to the right. If O'Conner is a 4.5 on a conservative scale, then Bush should find someone who's a 6.0.
We've had quite enough of this type of thinking, a la Nixon and Bush Senior. The time to act, as always, is now. Liberty and the Contstitution have waited long enough. The moderates can't stomach a fight so let's give them one anyway and watch them spin in their rhetorical circles. Principles are worth fighting for.
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