Monday, September 05, 2005

Roberts a Miscalculation?

Okay, maybe it's not so bad after all. Maybe I'm looking at this through the wrong end of the telescope. Read up on The Left Coaster's idea of what the Roberts nomination means, and you might be pleasantly surprised:

Bush’s surprise this morning...is an act of political weakness and a miscalculation.

...It is a sign of political weakness because Bush knew he couldn’t get Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas confirmed quickly as Chief Justice.

It is a political miscalculation because the White House assumes that with the vetting on Roberts underway, it will be easier to get him through the hopper than to bring in someone new or to push Scalia or Thomas through. It won’t. Democrats will be able to successfully argue, as they already are, that the level of disclosure and transparency in a nominee that is expected for a Chief Justice is higher than what the White House has shown so far on an Associate Justice.

...conservatives will not be happy with this development, no matter what they say publicly, because they were counting on a Chief Justice Scalia and to a lesser degree a Chief Justice Thomas. Conservatives already had doubts about Roberts, and those doubts will increase now that they see that Bush has thrown in the towel on installing a true friend of the American Taliban as Chief Justice.

Third, the math of this court is still interesting, in that O’Connor stays on the court until her successor is named. But therein lies the problem for Bush with Rehnquist’s death at the same time: if Democrats delay Roberts’ confirmation and even eventually stop him, how many reliable conservative votes does this court have in this session if Bush gambles everything on getting Roberts through and doesn’t succeed quickly?

Posted by crimnos @ 2:20 PM

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I definitely have this story under my scope. I am really wondering who they are going to put on as the second nominee. Maybe shooting Roberts up to the chief justice role is a smoke screen to bring in a Janice Rogers Brown. Who knows. I like your blog. I will be linking to it. I love that quote by JFK.

Posted by Blogger Handsome B. Wonderful @ 6:32 PM #
 

Yeah, I really wonder what the next move will be and how quickly he will make it. I really can't see both confirmations being done by the time the court comes back, though, so we have O'Connor for awhile, at least.

Thanks! I like your blog too and have linked to you on the right-hand column, as well. Always good to see friendly faces in the community.

Posted by Blogger crimnos @ 8:32 PM #
 

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Posted by Blogger crimnos @ 8:32 PM #
 
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