Obama’s not the only one with a pick to make. Eric Zimmermann of The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room emailed us the following summary.
A really interesting aspect of the Souter retirement is that Republicans, because of Specter’s defection, are lacking a leader on the Judiciary Committee, which will handle the nomination of a new Justice.
The Republican chain of succession here is REALLY messy. The next highest Republican is Chuck Grassley, but he already is the top Repub on Finance, and GOP rules prevent him from holding both. Then comes Orrin Hatch, but he’s already held the post and can’t take it again without a special waiver. THEN comes Jon Kyl, but he’s Minority Whip, and he can’t be both Whip and a Ranking Member (GOP rules, again).
That brings us to Jeff Sessions, a conservative who, interestingly enough, once lost his own nomination battle to be a federal judge.