The Washington Post offers this list of those reportedly under serious consideration for the opened-up Supreme Court slot and it’s clear President George Bush he has many options and can choose one of those on this list that will be highly polarizing or one that might sail through easier and spare the nation a lot of grief.
The key point is: Bush will face Democratic opposition no matter what on most of his nominees since there’s a genuine difference between a candidate who sparks traditional opposition and a candidate who will be highly divisive. The GOP would then have to use good, old fashioned power politics to get the nomination through.
We’d say that if you have bet money with a bookie on the Senate moderate’s compromise that stalled the “nuclear option” holding in coming months, you might at least consider hedging your bet…
But the flip side of that is this: if Bush does submit someone who is conservative but not seemingly thrown out there to be provocative, some of the moderate Democrats who were instrumental in the compromise may not go along with some of their more liberal colleagues if there’s a move to filibuster.
So the ball is in George Bush’s court as to not just what kind of nominee he wants to submit, but the degree of intensity of political battle — and polarization.
Meanwhile, the El Paso Times reports that many in the city’s Hispanic population are eagerly anticipating Bush moving to appoint the court’s first Hispanic justice. According to the article, opinions on the possible candidacy of Attorney General (and close Bush confidant) Alberto Gonzales are split.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.