[steveegg]

Extreme circumstances - in other words, the seven Dems in the gang could bolt back to the party if they felt the nominee was too extreme.

And the Gang basically took power from Frist, Specter and Reid regarding nominations. They hold the cards now.

Hate to break in on this late, but those 7 RINOs also had an "out"; if they determined that the "extraordinary circumstances" weren't extraordinary, they could break their pledge.

What's worse, since Roberts didn't draw the "extraordinary circumstances" line, why in the <expletive deleted> did President Bush feel it necessary to nominate someone more likely to be either a clone of O'Connor or Souter than one of Roberts (much less Scalia or Thomas)?

[dirtboy]

Hate to break in on this late, but those 7 RINOs also had an "out"; if they determined that the "extraordinary circumstances" weren't extraordinary, they could break their pledge.

Once again, those seven are RINOs. They would not go along with someone like Janice Rogers Brown, and would probably be inclined to agree with the Dems that she would be too extreme. And two of the Gang are Snowe and Collins and both wanted a female to replace O'Conner.