Posted on 09/26/2005 11:20:16 AM PDT by Oliver Optic
This is a recent post by Erick on ConfirmThem.com blog (a project of RedState.org):
Word in legal circles is that Priscilla Owen is set to become the next justice appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
Unfortunately, I have received reliable information late this afternoon that Karl Rove, among others, is making a last minute push for the President to consider Alberto Gonzales, despite previous assurances from inside the White House, Justice Department, and Senate that Gonzales was not being considered.
A third party source tells RedState that Rove is pushing for Gonzales and that Larry Thompsons name has gone off the radar. This afternoon I contacted my White House source who says Karl Rove believes that Gonzales is conservative and, given the current docket, will have time to prove it before midterm elections.
The source says it is not a guarantee and there are significant issues at play including confirmability. I have no word on other names, other than the usual that are already out there.
Looks like Im going to be headed to the driving range soon.
One last point from my White House source. The source says some conservatives inside the White House, including the source, feel some conservative frustration, i.e. conservatives are being seen, but not heard.
You're joking. Eleanor Clift is irrelevant in this matter.
There fixed it for you. JRB will never be nominated by Bush. Her stance is conservative and she would rule against practically any government program foisted upon us by Republicans or Democrats
False. You know nothing about these so-called sources. As I said, Clift is irrelevant. She is an enemy whom no one in the WH would let in on anything, much less this. You are a Bush-hating rumor monger. Nothing more.
And, you're a Bush Kool-Aid drinker that refuses to demand a known originalist be appointed. It's no wonder things never change when you blindly worship at the alter of the Republican party rather than stand up for conservative principles.
With a Presidential announcement any day regarding Sandra Day OConnors replacement, it is time to review what we know and what we do not know.First, we know that many in the legal community think Priscilla Owen has the nod. Robert Novaks reporting has been consistent with that assumption. We also know that she had a private meeting with the President. Lastly, we know the President is fond of her. Unfortunately, some also think Owen is not strongly pro-life and would never vote to overrule Roe v. Wade.
Second, I have five unconnected sources, including two inside the White House, who are telling me that Rove thinks Gonzales needs to be considered and that Gonzales is more conservative that we all think. The Washington Post has had similar information. One source alone would be rather inconsequential, but five unconnected people telling me the same thing makes me think this is credible. Nonetheless, I agree with K-Lo. I do not think Alberto Gonzales will become Justice Gonzales. I just dont see it happening.
Heres why. The conservative base got a very upset stomach when it appeared all but certain that Joy Clement was the nominee. The base is already against Gonzales. While Rove may be doing his calculations that there is enough on the courts docket to prove Gonzaless bona fides before the midterm elections, the base will be apoplectic for a good long while and the President will have a lot of difficulty moving what little remains of his agenda until people realize Gonzales is actually a conservative. Additionally, what went under the radar for most was that while Rove is pushing Gonzales, there are doubts as to how easily Gonzales could be confirmed. The Democrats are itching for a fight and Gonzales gives them lots to fight with.
If the President wants to rally the base, choosing Gonzales would be a disaster. The base is already angry over spending and Gonzales will not help. This does not make sense and I do not think it will happen.
What we do not know is very obvious. Who the nominee will be is a great mystery right now. Owen is up there. I still think Luttig is in play based solely on my gut and his qualifications. One name that started surfacing in my email and IMs over the past twenty-four hours has been Diane Sykes. Batchelders name keeps coming up too.
Perhaps the most interesting name that keeps surfacing is that of Miguel Estrada. Former Solicitor General Ted Olson has been a big proponent of Estradas, but it is unclear that Estrada wants to try that fight again especially when the stakes are so much higher. I am, however, inclined to think the next justice will come from one of the United States Courts of Appeal and Estrada does not fit.
The White House is doing an even better job of keeping the lid on this nominee than the last. That leads me to believe that all the outside chatter is meant to misdirect us from the actual nominee. I have said repeatedly here and elsewhere that Karl Rove and President Bush both believe one of the main reasons the Republicans have been so dominant since 2000, is because of a conservative base who think judicial victory is just around the corner. That to me means that we will see the President nominate a conservative perhaps not a Jones or a Garza, but a conservative of high professional reputation with a paper trail that does not contain the specific answer to the question how definite has the nominee been on the issue of overturning Roe?
Well find out who it is rather soon.
Perhaps you should do the thinking.
No matter how many elections we win, the country seems to keep sliding further and further to the left, thanks mainly to the pusillanimous leaders we put in office whose performance always falls far short of their promises.
The Whigs withered away and so will the Republicans if they merely turn out to be Democratic Light as they increasing appear to be now.
Fiscal conservatism is important, but its social issues that make the difference, and people like McCain et al, seem blind to the wishes of the average conservative Republican on many issues. On the issue of Guest Workers they are alienting conservatives and independents and even some Dems. Bush has disappointed many conservatives with Roberts - hopefully Roberts will turn out o.k. Bush has also disappointed conservatives with many other appointees and we will be closely watching who he replaces O'Connor with. If he uses his buddy Gonzales or another dark horse candidate, the Republicans are finished in 2006 and 2008 as many conservatives will just stay home and not vote in protest.
They can't keep taking the right wing of their party for granted, getting their support in elections, then giving them lip-service when they get elected. They run scared from the media even when elections have demonstrated that no one gives a damn about what theleftist mainstream media has to say. Americans have wised up to their propaganda masquerading as news.
You don't like ALL of the judicial nominees President Bush has made? What is wrong with Owens and Brown and Pickering and all the rest of them? And WHY are you so against Roberts...because Ann Coulter has a fly up her nose? Roberts clerked for Rehnquist ( and I bet that Rehnquist has some input about his nomination !), worked for Reagan, is one of Luttig's oldest and best friends ( I bet you like Luttig ), he is well known to a whole lot of people, whom I bet you think are okay, and Ann didn't do her homework on him.
I have explained to you, IN DEATAIL, many time over, why the Gonzales nomination rumor is utter garbage. You refuse to look at the facts and logic I post, so I won't bother ton repeat myself yet again...you don't care; you just want to wallow in your imagined misery.
McQueeg isn't going to be the GOP presidential candidate. You can take THAT to the bank! And go argue with the people who elect that moron; I didn't have anything at all to do with it.
Whew!!! Glad I was wearing my asbestos underpants.
I don't think we disagree strategically, just tactically.
I approve of Bush's Court appointees thus far, but the real prizes will be the SCOTUS judges. I'm disappointed Bush seemed to opt for a stealth candidate. He may have had reasons. Roberts APPEARS to be a good choice - I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I just HOPE the O'Connor nominee will be a thumb in the eyes of the libs - someone with a Thomas or Scalia like record. They deserve it after sticking us with that Wicked Witch of the West Ginsberg.
I hope you are right about Gonzales - I can't stand the man and feel he was a bad choice for the Attorney General's slot.
And I can see the illegal invader issue as being as devisive as the slavery issue - perhaps more so.
The majority of Republican and Democrat rank and file are ticked off over these illegal aliens - so are the independents. Yet Bush and many Republicans and the mass of Democrats plough blindly forward with an agenda nobody wants on this subject except the far left, the illegals, and the corrupt employers who exploit them - and the politicinas south of the border who benefit from their exodus and the bucks they send back home.
And I have a very high regard for Coulter although I sincerely hope and pray she is wrong about Roberts.
I agree with you that McCain probably won't be the nominee - right now. But he's salivating over it and has a large national backing and lots of bucks from his rich wife.
Man! You 'True Belivers' sure are articulate!
God knows, throwing around insults really makes your position look strong!
Yes, he has presidential aspirations. Yes, he is the lefty MSM darling. NO, he doesn't have what it takes to win the GOP presidential nomination and if he did so, by some quirk of fate ( ain't gonna happen! ), he would lose by a landslide!
For some reason, unknown and unguessable by me, Ann has an absolute loathing for Roberts. I have NO idea why, nor can I even guess. Once she wrote that first anti-Roberts article, she was stuck. She refuses to back off, even though so many other Conservative talking heads/columnists disagreed with her. And all she has done, lately, is rewrite that first nasty column about Roberts, changing a word or a sentence, here and there. This is the petulance of a small child or a young teen; not the thinking of an adult, intelligent woman.
I don't want Gonzales on the SCOTUS either and I really stand firm in what I repeatedly have said about it...he will NOT be the next nominee !
It was hard enough for the president to get him installed as AG, you think that President Bush wants TWO, instead of one, horrendous fights right now ? The AG would have to be replaced, you know, if Gonzales were the nominee. THAT MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL!
I think that the president was angry, VERY angry, when people speculated that Gonzales would be the nominee, when it was Roberts and all of the abuse being heaped on him for no reason and that's why the president sounded off.
Will the illegals problem come to cause as much as a furor as slavery did? Maybe, but not right now, it won't. Don't believe me? Then where are the ministers decrying illegals from the pulpits, the equivalent of the Abolitionists, the marches through the streets, the books and songs and all the rest, that went along with the antislavery movement?
NOWHERE !
And the abolitionist movement was on the boil, from the time of the inception of this nation and didn't explode, until England had done away with their slavery act, and close to 100 years after the founding of this country.
BTW...the abolitionists were also the same folks, who wanted Prohibition and look how long THAT took.
To all of the suckers who actually believed the prissy rumor-mongering Erick Erickson's rubbish about Gonzales being GWB's SCOTUS pick I say "OWNED!"
BUMP! I'm happy you saved it...lol.
Unfortunately, it was worse.
It was about Erick Erickson, not you.
Southack BOOKMARKED it purposely.
To: Oliver Optic
Erick Erickson is a rumor-mongering gossip who has no sources whatsoever inside the White House.
Bookmark this thread to more fully discredit him when the actual pick is named (and isn't gonzalez).
71 posted on 09/26/2005 3:20:32 PM CDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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And if you understood my reply, then you'll know that posting anything by the gossipy little Erick Erickson is a waste of electrons.
Free Republic doesn't deserve to be associated with such gutter dwelling rumor-mongers who **claim** to have White House sources. He doesn't.
He was wrong about Chief Justice Roberts. He was wrong about Miers. He'll be wrong the next time that he guesses at the nominee (e.g. for Ginsberg's and/or Steven's replacements).
Over and over he'll be wrong again and again, yet there will always seem to be some dupe getting so suckered by Erick that they will post his rubbish up on FR (without even so much as a disclaimer about his track record).
Then again, I get my kicks from slamming such nonsense...so not all is lost!
If we were to discount every pundit who didn't predict Miers or Roberts ... we'd have a pretty empty forum.
You don't like a posting ... don't click.
I'm not in a real great mood tonight, sorry.
Love ya, man. What started you on the anti-Erickson thing?
No worries.
What ticked me off about Erickson was seeing him spread the absolutely untrue rumor about Gonzales being GWB's first pick (that actually went to Roberts).
Seeing him repeat that rumor **again** (for the eventual Miers pick) went way, way over the line. He was clearly trying to drive a wedge between conservative GOP'ers by floating the Gonzales rumor.
Tacky. Cheap.
So I called him on it by stating that it wouldn't be Gonzales and that Erick would be wrong yet again.
Knowing that Erick just wants to drive a wedge between conservatives means that I know that he won't have inside information and that he won't post something flattering to us. He's therefor somewhat predictable...an irony...since we're dealing with his "predictions."
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