Getting Assertive
The AP’s Jesse Holland has written an article about how Senate Republicans “began pressuring the Senate’s minority Democrats to promise what they called a fair confirmation hearing & vote for President Bush’s next Supreme Court nominee.”
Mr. Holland goes on to say:
Almost three-fourths of the 100-member Senate will vote for Roberts, a 50-year-old conservative U.S. Appeals judge & former appellate lawyer, as the replacement for William H. Rehnquist, who died earlier this month. “If being intelligent, brilliant, a superb lawyer, the greatest legal mind of your generation & well qualified isn’t enough, what is?” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R-SC), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Simply put, Sen. Graham, who I was mightily upset with when he signed the Agreement of Understanding, nails it with his observation that Roberts should be a lock because Judge Roberts is the “greatest legal mind” of our generation.
Quite frankly, Judge Roberts should get confirmed by voice vote instead of going through a roll call vote. He’s that outstanding. This isn’t just someone that’s a good candidate. Simply put, he’s the gold standard from now on.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said he’d reserve judgment on how the consultation has gone for the second seat. “We’ll see who they give us & that’ll answer that question,” Reid said. “You don’t need a lot of consultation if the person you’re consulting with listens to you, so we’ll see.”
Sen. Reid is such a delight to a conservative blogger because he’s so quotable and so silly. If Sen. Reid thinks that the President will somehow nominate a so-called consensus pick, then he’s read too much of the Agenda Media’s articles. This is the President’s difference-making pick. This is where he gets to put his imprint on the Supreme Court. He isn’t guaranteed a third nomination, which is why I’m so convinced that he’ll pick someone rock solid, possibly like J. Michael Luttig or Michael McConnell or someone of that caliber.
“To vote against Judge Roberts, I’d need to believe either that he were an ideologue whose ideology distorts his judgment & brings into question his fairness & open-mindedness or that his policy values were inconsistent with fundamental principles of American law,” said Sen. Carl Levin, (D-MI). “I don’t believe either to be the case.”
To be honest, this surprises me. I’d never suspect that Carl Levin would even think about voting to confirm a conservative like Judge Roberts as the 18th Chief Justice in the history of the United States.
Cross-posted at Confirmation Whoppers