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Dems, GOP Clamor for Input on Court Pick
Thursday July 7, 2005 9:01 PM
AP Photo VASA103
By DAVID ESPO
AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats clamor for consultation with President Bush before he fills a vacancy on the Supreme Court, while Republicans call for a new justice who will interpret the Constitution rather than read new rights into it.
Strictly speaking, neither side will be satisfied if that's all they get.
Not the conservatives who drew two rebukes from Bush this week for their criticism of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, a potential choice who would become the first Hispanic justice. His offense, from their point of vs to the Capitol to pay a courtesy call on Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada even before O'Connor announced her plans.
The president called Reid and Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, the day O'Connor announced her retirement. White House Chief of Staff Andy Card has since called several Senate Democrats.
But phone calls and a bipartisan meeting at the White House aren't going to cut it with the Democrats.
``I stand ready to work with President Bush to help him select a nominee to the Supreme Court who can unite Americans,'' Leahy declared in mid-June, amid speculation that Chief Justice William Rehnquist would retire.
``To be meaningful, consultation should include who the president is really considering so we can give responsive and useful advice,'' said Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, one of the Democrats on Card's call list.
``As to whether or not there's a knockdown, dragout fight on this is up to the president,'' Reid said in Reno on Friday.
Liberal groups that customarily criticize Bush now try coaxing.
``Our effort is aimed at letting the White House know that there are millions and millions and millions of people who want him to use a process that produces a consensus nominee in the mold of Sandra Day O'Connor,'' said Nancy Zirkin of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.
``She is conservative ... at least is mindful of landmark decisions and settled law.''
Settled law, that is, that recognizes the right to an abortion, upholds affirmative action, maintains civil rights and generally preserves the status quo in other controversial areas where O'Connor often held the swing vote on a divided court.
That may the best that Democratic senators and their allies can hope for.
But leaving settled law alone is hardly what abortion opponents and other conservatives outside the Senate have in mind.
``The Republican base, which worked hard to elect President Bush twice, does not think the Supreme Court should be stuck in the mentality of the 1960s,'' said Wendy Long, counsel to the conservative Judicial Confirmation Network.
In a statement, she cited a ``sorry line of judicial rulings'' that includes ``prohibiting school prayer, allowing the burning of the American flag, mandating same-sex marriage, protecting virtual child pornography on the Internet, upholding discriminatory racial preferences, taking the words 'under God' out of the Pledge of Allegiance, striking down states modest restrictions on late-term abortions.''
Abortion, an issue that divides the country politically like no other, is a particular point of contention.
``It is critical that President Bush make it clear to the American public that nominating someone who will 'faithfully interpret the Constitution' means nominating a person who will oppose the Roe v. Wade decision, a decision which was clearly judicial activism at its worst,'' said Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition.
The official advice to Republican senators is to avoid all such talk.
``America needs judges who will apply the law as written, not make the law to advance a personal political agenda,'' reads a set of talking points distributed to GOP aides within hours of O'Connor's announcement.
It adds: ``Nobody should be playing politics with the justice system.''
They lost get over it. But Bush is Mr nice guy
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Posted on Tue, Jul. 12, 2005
Bush solicits Supreme Court advice
DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Aiming to demonstrate an openness to all views, President Bush sought the advice of Democratic as well as Republican senators on Tuesday about whom to pick to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. He also got a little unsolicited advice from his wife.
Over breakfast at the White House, two key lawmakers urged Bush to consider nominating someone other than a judge. Democrats floated the names of three Hispanic judges, but advocates on both the right and left said they might be too moderate for the president's liking.
Bush even heard - all the way from South Africa - from Laura Bush, who said she'd like to see him replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor with a woman.
Through it all, Bush gave no clues about whom he might be considering.
"Closer than I was yesterday" was all he would say about how near he was to making his first pick for the nation's high court.
His White House meeting was attended by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn; Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.; Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee; and Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, ranking Democrat on the committee. Vice President Dick Cheney and White House Chief of Staff Andy Card also attended.
Reid told Bush he wanted the president to share the names of his candidates so senators could evaluate them.
The Democrat said he didn't want to "wake up in the morning and see a name in the paper." The president's process of consultation should continue, he said.
"If the president sends us a consensus nominee, the Senate will confirm them easily," Reid said. "If he sends us a divisive nominee, we will use all procedural tools at our disposal to protect the American people."
The meeting was intended to reinforce White House contentions that Bush was consulting widely in filling the first Supreme Court vacancy in 11 years. Democrats have complained bitterly for years that Bush has ignored their views on lower-court judicial nominations. The White House said it has solicited the views of more than 60 senators.
"Senator Frist came to the Senate floor and said it is unprecedented what the president has done," Reid said about the consultation. "That is a bunch of flimflam," he said, adding that presidents have often consulted with leading senators about Supreme Court nominees.
Officials said Reid signaled that several of the contenders supported by conservatives could trigger a confirmation battle. The Nevada Democrat did not mention names, but among those backed by conservatives are federal appellate judges J. Michael Luttig, Michael McConnell, John Roberts Jr., Samuel Alito and J. Harvie Wilkinson III.
Several officials familiar with the hour-long meeting said Democrats suggested Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Ed Prado of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Hinojosa, all Hispanics.
"The question is how seriously will the president take these or any other names suggested, and we don't know the answer to that," said Elliott Mincberg, legal director of the liberal advocacy group, The People for the American Way. Wendy Long, counsel for the conservative Judicial Confirmation Network, said the three Hispanic judges' judicial philosophy might not "meet the president's bedrock criterion of faithfulness to the Constitution."
Conservative groups also are leery of another Hispanic said to be a top contender, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who is close to Bush but whose views on abortion and affirmative action have raised questions among them. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said he was trying to arrange a meeting with Gonzales this week to explore his judicial philosophy.
Specter and Leahy said they told Bush he should consider naming someone who has not worn a judicial robe. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, for example, was a Justice Department official when he was selected.
"If they had a little more practical experience and didn't work so much within the footnotes and the semicolons, you might have a little different perspective, and I'd like to see that added to the court," Specter said."
Leahy, who gave a jar of Vermont maple syrup as a belated birthday gift to Bush, who turned 59 on July 6, agreed.
"I've talked, as each of us has, with a number of the current justices," Leahy said. "I know they see a number of benefits that could come to having somebody from outside the judicial monastery." Despite the consultations, the White House indicated the only thing that mattered was what the president thought.
"People are welcome to express their views ... but it's the president's constitutional responsibility to make that selection," spokesman Scott McClellan said. "And I don't think any individual should have veto power over that selection process."
In contrast to last week, little was said about rumors that Rehnquist, who is battling cancer, would step down, too
He better not let his base down or it will be Madame Hilary in 2008.