So make the fight fierce
Robert Novak downplays the odds of Alberto Gonzales getting the nomination if a vacancy opens up on the Supreme Court, bit also notes that he may be the easiest way for president George W. Bush to get his nominee confirmed:
Since Gonzales was confirmed as attorney general after a nasty debate over treatment of terrorist detainees, the argument he would be confirmed more easily than other prospects might seem dubious. But Senate Democrats may have expunged anti-Gonzales bile from their system and be willing to support somebody who is markedly less conservative than any other nominee.
If not Gonzales, who could the nominee be?
White House judge-hunters are looking for a woman. They have interviewed Appellate Judge Edith Brown Clement (5th Circuit, New Orleans), a conservative who flies under the radar. She was confirmed as a Louisiana district judge in 1991, seven weeks after her nomination by the first President Bush, and was confirmed as an appellate judge in 2001, two and a half months after George W. Bush named her.
Clement would be subject to far more scrutiny as a Supreme Court nominee. So would any other conservative named by Bush, though Democrats may have exhausted scrutinizing Gonzales. The president must choose between a fierce confirmation fight or the alienation of his political base.
Did anyone think it would be easy to make the Supreme Court more conservative? I think not.
Bring on the fierce fight.
