Friday, July 01, 2005

O'Connor's resignation shocks WH

They were prepared for Rehnquist (i.e., they had a nominee in mind who would be at least as conservative as the chief justice).
    Her decision even took allies of the White House by surprise.

    "An O'Connor resignation was not one we took seriously," said C. Boyden Gray, a former White House counsel who founded the Committee for Justice, one of the key advocacy groups set to back whoever the president nominates.

    Mr. Gray received a text message during an interview with The New York Times at his Georgetown home shortly after 9:30 this morning informing him of Justice O'Connor's resignation.

    "It makes me nervous," he said. "I'm not sure we are as prepared for an O'Connor vacancy."

O'Connor's resignation means Democrats can insist on a "consensus candidate." Knowing Bush, this won't mean a thing to him, he'll nominate whoever Rove and Cheney tell him to nominate. My feeling has always been they will go with someone they know to be socially conservative (read: anti-choice, anti-gay) but with a limited paper record to make it harder for Democrats to come up with evidence to back a filibuster.

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