Wednesday, July 13, 2005

I know President Bush met with senators from both parties yesterday to discuss his Supreme Court pick, but I didn't know this:

President Bush called Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va. - a frequent critic of his administration - on Tuesday to discuss the pending vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court.

"I appreciate President Bush reaching out to senators of both political parties, in an effort to find a consensus on a Supreme Court nominee," Byrd said Tuesday afternoon. "The Constitution's framers intended the process of nominating a person to the court to be a shared responsibility." ...


Now, do you really think he'd be doing all this outreach if he were planning to nominate someone mainstream, someone who could get a lot of Democratic support on his or her own? Do you think he'd even bother with all this if he were planning to name someone like Gonzales who'd already survived a major confirmation battle?

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UPDATE: For whatever it's worth, Fred Barnes said this morning in The Weekly Standard that

President Bush now appears highly unlikely to nominate Gonzales to replace retiring Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Nor is Gonzales expected to be chosen to fill a second vacancy on the high court should Chief Justice William Rehnquist or another justice steps down in the near future.

His pick is Edith Brown Clement. Quite possible, I'd say, but commenter #17 here won't be pleased:

I come to the conclusion that Judge Clement is absolutely unacceptable. To draw so little criticism from the libertine left over a lengthy judicial career is a sign of Souterism waiting to sprout.

#17 adds:

P.S.: Gonzales delenda est.

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