NYT: An Interview by, Not With, the President

[kskiska]

By ELISABETH BUMILLER

WASHINGTON, July 20 - When President Bush sat down in the White House residence last Thursday to interview a potential Supreme Court nominee, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, he asked him about the hardest decision he had ever made - and also how much he exercised.

"Well, I told him I ran three and a half miles a day," Judge Wilkinson recalled in a telephone interview on Wednesday. "And I said my doctor recommends a lot of cross-training, but I said I didn't want to do the elliptical and the bike and the treadmill." The president, Judge Wilkinson said, "took umbrage at that," and told his potential nominee that he should do the cross-training his doctor suggested.

"He thought I was well on my way to busting my knees," said Judge Wilkinson, 60. "He warned me of impending doom."

Judge Wilkinson's conversation with the president about exercise and other personal matters in an interview for a job on the highest court in the land was typical of how Mr. Bush went about picking his eventual nominee, Judge John G. Roberts, White House officials and Republicans said. Mr. Bush, they said, looked extensively into the backgrounds of the five finalists he interviewed, but in the end relied as much on chemistry and intuition as on policy and legal intellect.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/21/politics/21bush.html?

[Lindacooks]

1. Chemistry???

Try how much they sucked up to the little weasel.

[TrogL]

15. I thought he flunked Chemistry

[Sgent]

2. GWB is an idiot my ass

I don't want you to keel over 5 years after your appointment, so what's your health routine, cholesterol, blood pressure and how much do you exercise?

[Supersedeas]

13. don't run Segway or Bike--until then, no SCt position for you.

Do as I do and you will go far amigo

[katty]

17. GWB to potential SC nominee: after a grueling day working

out, riding my bike-and falling off it-I like to relax at Color Me Mine.

[Bumblebee]

3. Check out the front page of the WP instead

will make you happy :)

[MisterP]

4. brainless git! remove the corkscrew from the shriveled, wizened remnants

of your frontal cortex, you coke-fried ethanol-soaked primate!

[XemaSab]

7. My sentiments exactly

n/t

[Carolab]

5. Oh God. Look at who was pushing Roberts.

By 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, as Mr. Bush was informing important members of the Senate before his 9 p.m. televised announcement, Karl Rove, the president's political adviser, was calling key conservatives to tell them that Judge Roberts was the pick. One of Mr. Rove's first calls was a conference call with Mr. Gray; Leonard Leo, the executive vice president of the Federalist Society and the head of Catholic outreach for the Republican Party; Jay Sekulow, the chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, an evangelical group; and former Attorney General Edwin Meese III of the Heritage Foundation.

Mr. Sekulow and Mr. Leo were part of an outreach team of lawyers assembled by the White House to push Mr. Roberts with conservative groups. Both said on Wednesday that they had known Judge Roberts for years and attested to his conservatism with others in the movement.

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. I'm sure Bush didn't need anyone to attest to Roberts' conservatism

It's not like he didn't already know the guy from his work on the 2000 FL Recount, his work has a registered lobbyist during the 2004 campaign, and then his appoint to the Bush Transition Team. Funny, they never mention any of this stuff on his resume.

[Carolab]

14. The point is, once again, it's Rove's pick not W's.

And Rove is the tool of the evangelicals and Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation conservatives.

[bluedeminredstate]

6. "Are they exercising? Do they have Bibles?"

Kind of reminds me of the flight crew that went down over China. The Chimperor's first questions were proudly repeated by his aides, and the press practically exploded in ectasy in quoting these lame questions as though he was fully engaged and practically ready to throw on his cape and rescue the crew himself if they weren't working out while being held captive! Then his refusal to apologize for spying resulted in a letter where he said sorry about 10 times while looking like a weak little weasel. Plus the Chinese got to tear apart the spy plane before sending it back. And yet he was hailed a tough negotiator...

Imagine Clinton asking Ginsburg what she did to maintain her figure or if she ate healthy?

:eyes:

[the_spectator]

8. You guys are missing Bush's savvy here -

He wants to appoint someone who will be HEALTHY, live LONG, and perpetuate hard-core Repub judicial philosophy for as long as possible!!

Of course he's asking them about their workout routine!

[O.M.B.inOhio]

9. Savvy? Well, this isn't anything new.

B* has always been more interested in fitness, sports, doggies, etc. I think Franken's book 'Lies and the lying liars...' gives transcript of B* talk with press the week he had received (I wouldn't say 'read') the PDB about bin Laden being determined to attack within U.S. A couple of words about the policy, then a lot about what his damn dogs like to do in Crawford. So seeing him talk about his adolescent interests, to the exclusion of matters that our civil servants ought to be passionate about and imtimately familiar with, is nothing new. Remember * talking about the Administrative Branch of government? He wouldn't know what to ask a judicial nominee. But he can probably read people and probably gets a good sense of whether someone is unimaginative and soulless enough to serve him and the God he imagines.

[symbolman]

12. I just wanted to say this is

a great post - things I'd long forgotten and I thought I was paying attention to this assclown :)

"Remember * talking about the Administrative Branch of government?"

Yep, that one slayed me.. a FOURTH grader knows more about the structure of our own govt than this imitation human..

also "the God he imagines." beautiful, should be in a song :)

We're going to need you when the Humans take over..

[O.M.B.inOhio]

21. Aw, shucks

:blush: :patriot:

[ozymandius]

11. Seeing souls again, like Putin's? n/t

[maxsolomon]

16. great job, bumiller

really hard hitting fluff.

[susu369]

18. As always, it's all about him - bu$h*

a sort of projection: select a man for his fabulous exercise routines ("just like ME - wonderful ME").

"Mr. Bush, who prides himself on his instincts about people..."

That's so hiliarious.

[bitchkitty]

19. Did he look into his soul? n/t

[WinkyDink]

20. Gee, and here I thought

it was just gay.