O'Connor In Line For Chief Supreme?Robert Novak has a fascinating column about the rumors in Washington concerning the Supreme Court. Novak says William Rehnquist could retire, and that Bush would then nominate Sandra Day O'Connor to be the new chief justice.
Alberto Gonzales, currently on his staff, as counsel, would then be nominated to fill the empty seat. The thinking, Novak says, is that Bush would be able to reap a lot of praise for nominating the first woman to be chief justice. Part and parcel of this is that O'Connor has ruled the way she has in recent cases in order to grease her confirmation hearings to be chief justice. After her opinions in the two rulings last week involving the Michigan affirmative action case, as well as Lawrence vs. Texas, the sodomy case, Democrats would be hard-pressed to oppose O'Connor in confirmation hearings. I don't know if there's anything to this or not, but if there is, there's obviously a lot of cynicism out there about the way justices might rule in order to grease future events, like nominations.
What's happening in Washington these days is almost unbelievable. If you would have told me that with a Republican president, House and Senate that the things that are happening today would be happening, I would have said you were nuts.