Specter Offers a Suggestion for Chief Justice: O'Connor

[sabra]

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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/11/politics/politicsspecial1/11court.html?ex=1278734400&en=1e8966cd04e3be35&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Specter Offers a Suggestion for Chief Justice: O'Connor
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

WASHINGTON, July 10 - Senator Arlen Specter, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, suggested on Sunday that President Bush could name Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who is retiring from the Supreme Court, to the position of chief justice if it opens up.

"I think it would be very tempting if the president said to Justice O'Connor, 'You could help the country now,' " Mr. Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and a pivotal player in any confirmation hearings, said in an interview on the CBS program "Face the Nation." "She has received so much adulation that a confirmation proceeding would be more like a coronation, and she might be willing to stay on for a year or so."

Although Mr. Specter's seeming endorsement of the idea was highly speculative - Justice O'Connor, 75, has announced her retirement, while Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, 80, has not stepped down - it was the clearest of his several recent signals that he plans to steer his own course as he oversees hearings on a replacement for Justice O'Connor, independent of the president and of his party's conservative base.

Many social conservatives have denounced Justice O'Connor's votes on abortion, sodomy laws and public displays of religion. Hailing her resignation as a long-awaited chance to turn the court to the right, they have reminded Mr. Bush of his repeated praise for the court's conservative anchor, Justice Antonin Scalia.

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[DanCa]

1. Wow

Arlene Specter is a good man and I just cant help but wonder why he is working for the republicans.

[Zhade]

2. Think "Magic Bullet".

JFK. He "found" the bullet, "miraculously", in the hospital.

[goclark]

3. I didn't know that

Really?

[Zhade]

9. Yep - ask Octafish or Media_Lies_Daily for specifics.

They have tons of research, and can tell you exactly how it happened.

[CityDem]

4. Arlen Specter is an idiot

Does he really believe Bush will forgo the chance to replace O'Connor with some right wing nominee. Bush will not run the risk that the repubs will lose control of the senate in 06 and be forced to nominate a more moderate justice.

Memo to Arlen -- the chemo is warping your senses.

[enough]

5. Typical Arlen Specter move

He makes this grandstanding "plea," which he KNOWS will not be accepted by O'Connor or Bush.

He knows there is no way this will happen. But after this, he can say "I TRIED to get a moderate on the court." Then, as usual, he can go with the flow of whatever the right wing wants.

In the end, he will do as he's told as he always does, after acting out this bullshit pretence of being "moderate" or "independent-thinking."


Let's not forget what Specter did for Clarence Thomas.

[iverglas]

6. interesting -- Specter / Clarence Thomas

As a foreigner, that's about all I know of him. Up here in Canada, I watched those hearings in a trance of fascination. (Not because I wanted to know what the outcome would be; that was glaringly obvious. But because the chance to watch a bunch of the smartest richest white guys on the continent do their stuff was not to be missed.)

I was enormously impressed with Kennedy and, in particular, Biden -- in terms of doing that job, and being on the side of right in that instance at least. Specter struck me (and I remember it all these years later) as a nasty piece of work, basically.



edited to demonstrate that I really do know how to spell "interesting"

[davidinalameda]

7. it would be interesting

If we had a choice between Scalia and O'Connor, I'd go with O'Connor

[second edition]

8. I could actually support this suggestion.

Scalia, is way to predicable and one sided in his opinions. He gives me the impression that he rubber stamps anything Conservative. if I was a betting person, I could bet money on Scalia's decisions and be correct about 99% of the time.