RedState and others are having a bit of an aneurism this morning over Bush’s new SCOTUS pick. Among the complaints are that she has no judicial record (having never served on the bench), that she donated to Al Gore back in 1988, that she’s just Bush’s latest ‘Crony’ pick, and that she’s “no Scalia or Thomas”.
Although I wonder how they’re so sure she’s no Scalia if she has no record.
One interesting point to keep in mind: Rehnquist, when he was appointed to the Supreme Court had no judicial record and was appointed out of the White House administration… so the only situational difference here is that we don’t know whether or not Rehnquist donated money to an extremely conservative Democrat nearly 20 years before his nomination.
In short: this is a ‘wait and see’ pick… but I really think the conservative base needs to chill the fuck out ASAP. (What it really comes down to is that a lot of Conservatives say they don’t want a judicial activist, but they do… they just want a conservative one)
Not so much concerned as disappointed. President Bush had a lot of distinguished jurists available to him to nominate. After a brilliant pick like John Roberts, this one falls sadly short of the previously established standard.