This Washington Post article claims that Bush is close to announcing his choice to replace O’Connor on the Court, and that person is likely to be a woman. A name that has been mentioned by Sunday morning talk shows, AP, USA Today, and the Post, over the last few weeks, and yet is not getting the attention she deserves is Judge Alice Batchelder of the Sixth Circuit. I’m paying a bit more attention to this because I happen to know her and have her scheduled to give our Constitution Day Lecture in September. Although she always appears a bit low on the list of possibles, I have reason to think she is much higher. She is a smart and deeply learned jurist who understands the role of the Court in our Constitutional order. Her opponents therefore will call her a conservative. That’s fine. I’ll probably have to find someone else for the Constitution Day talk if she gets appointed, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.
The Wall Street Journal has also the Honorable Batchelder on 2 different occasions that I have seen. If she really is as high as you say she is it can really be for only one reason. To keep it quite so when the day comes the MSM isn’t prepared and the hardcore left will have a tougher when they filibuster as public opinion will be completely unknown as she wasn’t talked about much. As result this could make the hardcore lefties in congress look like they will just block anything. Just like they have been.
I agree, Peter. Batchelder is a hard-working and intelligent judge that the left would have a difficult time attacking.
no they won’t - it will work like this :)
Kennedy Slams Unnamed Supreme Court Nominee
(2005-07-02) -- Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-MA, today criticized President George Bush’s as-yet-unnamed replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor as a "brutal, Bible-thumping, right-wing ideologue who hates minorities, women and cocker spaniels."
"He or she is clearly outside the mainstream of American values," said Sen. Kennedy. "President Bush has again ignored the Senate’s ’advice and consent’ role, forcing Democrats to filibuster this outrageous nominee."
The Massachusetts Senator said his aides have already discovered "reams of memos" showing that the man or woman Mr. Bush will appoint has "a history of abusing subordinates, dodging military service, hiring undocumented workers, spanking his or her children and rolling back the clock on human rights to the days when the Pharaohs ruled Egypt with an iron fist."
The Senator’s office issued a news release to the media documenting the allegations against the potential high court judge, with a convenient blank line allowing reporters to fill in the nominee’s name as soon as that information is leaked.