ConfirmThem

By AndrewHyman Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

David Brooks has an op/ed saying he's been reliably informed that, when Sen. Reid recently offered to let a couple appeals court nominees have votes if the rest are withdrawn, Reid also offered a secret promise to support cloture for President Bush's first Supreme Court pick. Brooks says Sen. Frist should have taken the offer --- which is baloney, it seems to me. Taking the offer would have done nothing to restore 214 years of tradition, and instead would have blessed the end of that tradition. Even assuming that Sen. Reid was making a good-faith offer that he could have kept (which is a very large assumption), the deal would have been unwise. Reid is the one who passed up not one but two good deals (the one described by David Broder and also Sen. Frist's more recent formal offer).

Jeffrey Rosen also has an article in the New York Times speculating about a possible Supreme Court vacancy, and whether Bush would elevate an associate justice to be chief justice, instead of nominating an outsider:

The outsiders most frequently mentioned on Mr. Bush's short list for chief justice and associate justice are all federal appellate judges: Samuel Alito Jr. of New Jersey; Emilio Garza of Texas; J. Michael Luttig of Virginia; Michael McConnell of Colorado; John Roberts of Washington D.C.; and J. Harvie Wilkinson III, also of Virginia.

The filibuster issue should be settled before a Supreme Court vacancy occurs, which seems kind of likely in June when the Court's term ends.