Posted on 10/01/2005 11:10:50 PM PDT by churchillbuff
The names are floating around. Who will the president pick to succeed Sandra Day O’Connor?
Since he did such a superb job with John Roberts — finding a candidate to whom it was hard to muster vehement objection from anyone — defenses are up. Uberconservatives think Bush owes them one. They’re waiting for a candidate they can truly trust to finish off the dreaded precedents on reproductive rights and equality of opportunity. They want another Scalia or Thomas.
Liberal Democrats are wary. Roberts was made of Teflon and they’ll have to pronounce on yet another candidate before they can test the new chief justice. They’re on guard.
So they should be. O’Connor has been such an important voice on the court, outside of her status as its first woman. Democrats are rightly determined not to allow the court to heel over to the right, jeopardizing the progress of the postwar years.
What’s a Republican president to do? Resurrecting dead candidates like Priscilla Owen or Janice Rogers Brown — both already filibustered for other appointments — would provoke a nasty confrontation. Democrats have put the White House on notice that they won’t be polite if he offers up such damaged goods.
He should also resist the temptation to nominate Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Sure, he’s a great pick if you’re looking for a diversity candidate, but the right thinks he’s soft on abortion. And Gonzales is damaged goods, too, because of his association with the disastrous policies on torture and the suspension of the Geneva Conventions in the war on terror.
Confirmation hearings for Gonzales would quickly descend into a contentious rehashing of some of the Bush presidency’s most painful moments, abetted, no doubt, by the recent release of additional grisly material on the Abu Ghraib scandal.
George W. Bush’s presidency is in a different place than it was even a few weeks ago when he first nominated Roberts. His approval ratings are abysmal. He is still struggling to recover his balance after the Katrina disaster. The war in Iraq is going very badly. His FEMA chief has been discredited as a clueless crony, and his party’s leader in the House of Representatives has just been indicted on felony conspiracy charges.
One name being floated at the moment is that of Harriet Miers, who succeeded Gonzales as White House counsel when Gonzales ascended to attorney general.
Miers would seem an attractive candidate: a career corporate lawyer, mature and terminally hardworking. But she was right in the thick of the Gonzales machine when those deadly guidelines were being fashioned. Plus she has never been a judge — not specifically required, but for such a crucial appointment, I’d argue, a pretty good idea.
Bush is looking more lame-duck all the time. What can the right do to him now? They’ve done him few favors recently, and he’s not running again.
A whole generation of smart, talented female and/or minority jurists is out there. There are genuine moderates among them, candidates who might not please the religious right but might be acceptable to mainstream Democrats.
- advertisement -
Frankly, at this point in his presidency, Bush has less to fear from the right. They can howl, but they can’t hurt him much more than he’s hurting already. He badly needs to resurrect his presidency. He needs to find a true moderate, and a moderate woman would be ideal. Both politically and morally, it’s the right thing to do.
Rodell is editorial page editor of the Gazette. She can be reached at srodell@wvgazette.com.
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BALONEY!
And liberals are always right. LOL!!
LOL!
Please. Stop taking libs at face value. They're acting all happy about Roberts because they don't want to look as bad when they vehemently oppose the next nominee.
Mark Levin approved of Roberts, and that's enough for me.
Oh, I'm scared. 45 no votes means the Dims still lose.
I'd be troubled too if I wasn't the smartest guy in the room.
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tired of infanticide being referred to as reproductive rights. Makes as much sense as calling slavery 'property rights.'
Absolutely. Roberts proved he was the right guy once he cleaned the Democrat's clock in the committee room.
He shoots, he scores!!!!
"I'd be troubled too if I wasn't the smartest guy in the room."
HaHaHahaha
Oh, fer cryin' out loud! You are troubled by anything President Bush does. And you know it.
If you want a Google GMail account, FReepmail me.
They're going fast!
He didn't clean any clocks. He had Shumer and others saying they liked what they heard. All that crap about respect for precedent and Roe being settled law. Roberts is no Thomas or Scalia, that because crystal clear -- and the Dems are happy
We will see soon enough.
Yeah, Schumer liked what he heard and voted No. I don't trust Liberals.
Yeah, pleasing mainstream Democrats has to be a Bush priority. Okay.
Susanna Rodell is an idiot.
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