Olson For AG?
That’s what it looks like according to Captain Ed. Already, Chuck Schumer is complaining about Olson, saying that he wouldn’t show up on anyone’s list of consensus candidates for the job:
“Clearly if you made a list of consensus nominees, Olson wouldn’t appear on that list,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat who led the Judiciary Committee effort to remove Mr. Gonzales. “My hope is that the White House would seek some kind of candidate who would be broadly acceptable.”
The biggest reason why Ted Olson wouldn’t be on such a list is because Democrats don’t like the fact that Olson was part of then Gov. Bush’s legal team during the Florida recount debacle. It isn’t based on qualifications because everywhere he’s gone, Ted Olson has been a brilliant attorney. Ted Olson has had a distinguished career, including arguing cases before the Supreme Court. Simply put, he’s eminently qualified to be our next AG.
I can’t picture the Democrats wanting to pick a fight on this one, even though PFAW and other ultra-liberal organizations will want them to. I’m betting that they’ll want to save their ammunition for a Supreme Court nominee.
Personally, I’d love seeing the Olson confirmation hearings. He’d absolutely school Dick Durbin, Russ Feingold, Dianne Feinstein and Joe Biden. I’d bet it’d make for better TV than yesterday’s Petraeus Report.
UPDATE: According to this Reuters article, Harry Reid has announced that Ted Olson won’t get confirmed by the Senate:
Reid declared: “Ted Olson will not be confirmed” by the Senate. “He’s a partisan, and the last thing we need as an attorney general is a partisan,” Reid told Reuters in a brief hallway interview on Capitol Hill.
That’s the best argument against Ted Olson that Reid can make? He’s partisan??? I’d challenge Sen. Reid to name someone in Washington who isn’t partisan. Furthermore, it’s pathetic to see that Sen. Reid doesn’t mention anything about Ted Olson’s qualifications. I’d doubt that Sen. Reid doesn’t like partisanship. I suspect that he simply doesn’t like conservative partisans, especially if they’re smarter than him.
If Sen. Reid and Sen. Schumer insist on ruling out Ted Olson as a potential attorney general candidate, then I call on President Bush to make Ted Olson the attorney general via recess appointment.
Technorati Tags: Ted Olson, Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, Chuck Schumer, PFAW
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
September 12th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
[...] Cross-posted at California Conservative Categories: The Constitution, SCOTUS, Judiciary, President Bush, Lawyers | [...]
September 12th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Who are these people that actually listen to Reid, Pelosi et al? I mean really. Doesn’t the base get tired of sniveling little children. What a way to live life…..always miserable, always hateful.
If this is what ‘true power’ is, no thank you.
September 12th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Maybe they don’t want him because he’ll investigate where and how Mr. Hsu got his money, and where and how it was distributed, and who was the brains behind it all.
Or gay whorehouses run out of a congressman’s apartment.
Or he might even get to itching about pursuing $90,000 in very cold cash.
And those are just the tip of the iceberg.
They’d rather have someone that can’t see beyond his/her nose unless it’s Republican monkey business.
The sad part is the donkey leaders can’t be shamed into supporting a qualified candidate because they have no shame. Ethics mean nothing to them because the definition of ethics is relative, not relevant.
September 12th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
John and Carlos, coming from the two of you, that’s rich. First, that Democrats are hateful? Tee-hee. I’d like to introduce to one Ann Coulter, queen of the hate/misery crowd:
And, on topic for recent events vis-à-vis General Patraeus’ testimony:
So, I guess if you’re wondering where anyone came up with the idea to put the General and ‘traitor’ in the same sentence, you have your answer.
Funny how republicans can dish it out but can’t take it.
September 12th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
And to be on topic, you really should learn how to use the google before blindly endorsing anyone for any office.
Can someone who’s been convicted of a crime be Attorney General?
Do you really think he’d survive the bruising confirmation battle he’s sure to get? His intimate involvement with so many of the partisan politics of the past 15 years will make for a bloody battle that will only serve to tear the country further apart.
Look, we’ve got too many problems at Justice for someone like Olson. Can’t there be at least one non-partisan that Bush could nominate, and who could restore the department to the rule of law?
September 13th, 2007 at 7:13 am
Rocky, coming from you, that’s expected. When did Coulter enter the conversation?
Listen, I could drag up maybe thousands of instances of Islamic terrorism, but you could throw in how evil “Christians” are by pointing out the Oklahoma bombings. With all the Christian jihadists worldwide beheading those poor Muslims for not converting I could understand why you would, but your point would be completely irrelevant.
Kinda like now.
September 13th, 2007 at 11:39 am
I say again:
September 13th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
And don’t forget Carlos, “Bush lied”.
He didnt make a mistake on faulty information as Hillary did, he lied.
September 13th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Oh, was Hillary briefed on the Iraqi foreign minister saying Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction?
‘Cuz the decider was, and still went ahead. And didn’t bother telling anyone in Congress about the intelligence that would have at least caused them pause for thought.
September 14th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Rocky, go back and listen to the speeches the former “First Lady” (if you don’t count the mistresses) made in the run-up to the war.
Now, it’s just a guess, but the guess here is that Hillarious had pretty much the same intelligence her hubby did before he left office, and if she did, either the consensus intelligence was that Iraq had WMDs, or (by what she said in her Senate speeches) she is a colossal liar (more than most of us think she is anyway.)
So yes, Rocky, I suspect she was effectively briefed on what the Iraqi foreign minister said (and had been saying for some time.) It’s just that, by his history, neither he nor his boss could be believed.