A nominee perceived by Democrats as too conservative could provoke a bitter confirmation fight and possible filibuster, given the increasingly hardened positions over a woman's right to have an abortion, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman said.
"That is not one of the names that I've suggested to the president," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told "Late Edition" on CNN. "In fact, I've done the opposite. I think it would create a lot of problems." Reid said Bush would be making a "mistake" were he to settle on a hard-liner simply to appease the far right in his party, especially after conservatives' wrath undermined Miers' nomination.
Reid and other Democrats said that Bush, given his low poll numbers, should nominate a consensus candidate rather than someone selected specifically to rally his conservative base.
"I think the American people can see through this so clearly. The president should come forward with some middle-of-the-road person, somebody that is going to be a good Supreme Court justice, not somebody that's going to be writing the law from the bench," Reid said on ABC's "This Week."
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., refused to rule out a Senate filibuster.
The selection of someone with extreme views will not bode well "for the nomination, for the Supreme Court or for his presidency," he told CBS' "Face the Nation."
Reid meant of course, someone who is not going to toss out a bunch of the activist Supreme Court decisions of the last several decades
What can I say. The red bits of NYS need their own state.
The President's poll numbers have consistantly been 90% of republicans for him and 80% or more of libs against him and an even divide of the swing voters. Since the Miers debaucle, his conservative numbers have slipped so his poll numbers dipped considerably. Now that he has come back to his base, despite what the Dems are selling, the President's numbers will go back up like a rocket.
Nuke the bastards!