September 08, 2005
9/8: N.O. Confidential
To go directly to the SCOTUS section, click here.
The hottest blogger of the last 24 hours is... NBC anchor Brian Williams? Apparently so. As we'll show later in this edition, a post at his official Daily Nightly blog is finding praise among bloggers primarily -- but not exclusively -- on the left. Williams' blog post happens to fit in with a series of reports in the past day or so that FEMA and other gov't officials are refusing to admit media entry to disaster-ravaged areas, in effect censoring (the less-charged term is "blackout") independent news reports from the area.
While MSNBC has had its roster of TV news personalities posting blogs for some time, they haven't had much impact. Credibility matters in the blogosphere, and members of the MSM are uniquely disadvantaged. This is particularly true of those like Williams who strive for "objectivity"; bloggers right and left tend to believe "objectivity" is at best an impossible goal and at worst a deception. Among the few MSM types to succeed with traditional bloggers are lefty ex-ESPNer Keith Olbermann (although more for "Countdown" than his blog) and conservative columnist Michelle Malkin (who in a year's time has become among the widest-linked conservative bloggers). The Blogometer hasn't seen much discussion of Williams or his blog since conservatives criticized him for drawing parallels between the Founding Fathers and the Iranian hostage-takers on 7/1; the controversy was short-lived, as Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement only hours later.
Coincident with the restricted media access, a small group of bloggers have traveled down to LA, managed to get into the N.O. area, and are blogging what they see. They got into the city just this a.m. and already have filed a handful of brief reports.
Meanwhile, bloggers right and left continue to debate who deserves the (most) blame for what went wrong in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, an ex-Reagan aide calls for Pres. Bush's impeachment, the LA DHS comes under fire for reportedly turning away Red Cross aid, and some highly dubious rumors make their way around the 'sphere. Plus, we present our latest Blogger Spotlight, with WSJ's James Taranto.
BUSH: The CEO Of The Sofa
At Prison Planet, the website of fringe journalist Alex Jones, ex-Reagan official Paul Craig Roberts posts an essay titled "Impeach Bush Now, Before More Die." He principally cites the admin's "gross incompetence" in Iraq and post-Katrina. Not a few lefty blogs pick it up, including Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Best of the Blogs and Tennessee Guerrilla Women, and enough others to help push the phrase "Impeach Bush" to the #6 search on Technorati this a.m. [Update at time of posting: It's now #4.]
Left-leaning Legal Fiction: "I think one of the biggest shocks was not that the Bush administration failed to predict the scope of the disaster, but that they failed to anticipate the ferocity of the political attacks that followed. It's the one thing they're usually very good at. To the extent top Bush aides thought about Katrina in political terms at all, I suspect they thought the hurricane would be a distraction from Iraq and might even result in a rallying around the president." More: "What they may not so readily admit is their own responsibility for the modern transformation of any and all national tragedies into polarized, zero-sum political battles. ... In fact, it's the necessary cost of the polarize-and-conquer strategy that Rove adopted to maintain the White House."
Ex-GOPer Marshall Wittmann "states a harsh truth": "We have a man-child as President of the United States. That may seem an unfair characterization, but consider" when Bush referred to FEMA Dir. Michael Brown "as 'Brownie' and joked about his past good times in New Orleans. It was inappropriate behavior that one would expect from an adolescent and not the adult leader of the free world. It largely went unnoticed." Wittmann allows that GOPers may actually know this: "He was created as a political force by [WH dep. CoS Karl] Rove and is minded by [VP] Cheney. The country will survive his leadership, but it is striking that so many have protected him with the soft bigotry of low expectations."
Catholic blogger Mark O'Shea invites conservative readers to defend the widely-reported Bush remark to Brown: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." He advises: "If you are unable to do this, then would you say that this quote and Bush's refusal to fire Brown and his insistence on defending him might actually be an instance where the hitherto purely theoretical faults of Bush might actually have achieved concrete expression? Or is saying that still too hasty and an example of 'Bush hatred?'"
This a.m. Michelle Malkin brings to the attention of her readers a MoveOn release sent to the MSM announcing a Katrina-related protest outside the WH. Last p.m., WSJ's James Taranto had praised MoveOn because they "initially played down the Bush-hate and launched a program called Hurricane Housing, in which members provide temporary accommodations to those who've been displaced." Econopundit's Steve Antler: "Will Cindy [Sheehan] be there too?"
Liberal Kevin Drum, at Political Animal: "I wish the few remaining adults in the Republican leadership understood this: Bush is indeed a CEO president, but he's a bad CEO. It's time for the board of directors to do something." TAPPED's Jeffrey Dubner: "Catastrophic events are just not something a CEO plans for on a day-to-day basis -- either you're screwed and your pre-existing plans don't make much of a difference, or you've got insurance to cover it and you just cut what losses you must."
At Fired Up! America, Dem consultant Roy Temple writes, Bush has "mumbled something about investigating his" own admin's response to Katrina, and he "should begin by making public the following schedules for the period 72 hours preceding Katrina and the 72 hours immediately thereafter." So far, we "already know" that Bush was "on vacation," Cheney was "fly-fishing" and home-shopping, Rumsfeld was at a "baseball game in San Diego," and Rice was "shoe shopping in New York." AMERICAblog issues a call to its readers in WY: "We want images of Cheney from the past ten days. If you live in Jackson, Wyoming or near St. Michael's off Chesapeake Bay or know someone that does, contact them. Anyone get their photo taken with Dick in the last ten days? Anyone got time-stamped video of Dick from the last ten days? Anyone see him shopping or dining out or checking out expensive mansions during the last ten days? Anyone go fly fishing with Dick from the last ten days? Give us proof and -- if we can confirm it's legit -- you'll see it posted here."
CENSORSHIP I: How We Long For The Days When This Accusation Mostly Applied To Blockbuster Video ...
NBC's Williams, at the Daily Nightly: "At that same fire scene, a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media... obvious members of the media... armed only with notepads. ... Someone else points out on television as I post this: the fact that the National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places where people last week were barred from LEAVING (The Convention Center and Superdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to this awful chapter in American history."
Among the many blogs linking to it are some of the widest-read blogs on the left-hand side of the 'sphere: Eschaton; Daily Kos; In Search of Utopia; TalkLeft; 1115.org; HungryBlues; Blue Mass Group; Talking Points Memo.
Also linking to Williams is centrist Jeff Jarvis: "After every scandal comes the coverup. Katrina is a scandal. The cover-up is underway. ... If there were ever a story that demands the bright light of public scrutiny, this is it." Obsidian Wings, on the obvious: "Williams is anything but a raving leftist moonbat."
Swing State Project's Bob Brigham, Majikthise's Lindsay Beyerstein and a few other lefty bloggers have traveled to the N.O. area to document the post-Katrina efforts at Operation Flashlight and help where they can. On 9/7, they reported: "We are in Jefferson Parish, just outside of New Orleans. At the National Guard checkpoint, they are under orders to turn away all media. All of the reporters are turning they're TV trucks around. Things are so bad, Bush is now censoring all reporting from NOLA. The First Amendment sank with the city." And earlier, they posted photos from outside a relief shelter in the area. Eschaton's Duncan Black reports, "by email Bob says the organization is crappy so they managed to get in."
Click here to see a just-posted photo from downtown N.O., presumably by Brigham by Macon Phillips. A contributor to AMERICAblog reports on making it into the N.O. convention center this a.m.: "Just passed USS Iwo Jima. We're at the convention center. The filth, the stench. I have no words."
CENSORSHIP II: If FEMA's Brown Is Getting A Chance To Redeem Himself, It Isn't Going Over Well On The Blogs
Conservative Bill Quick, on reports that FEMA has asked the media not to photograph dead bodies: "This is where, if the government weren't forcibly removing citizens from their city, a citizen's media would route around the government censorship. And that is exactly what it is. I hope the biggies send a few of those lawyers they like to use to threaten bloggers with into court to get an injunction on First Amendment grounds against this FEMA censorship. Unlike Plame, I'll support them 100 percent."
War and Piece's Laura Rozen: "Call the White House and your Senators and Congressmen, and demand that the administration stop trying to suppress reporting on the recovery operation in New Orleans, and demand that there be an independent investigation of the government's failures in its Katrina response, its FEMA and DHS hiring and staffing and operations. And a whole lot of civil disobedience and law suits from the media against the government are in order, starting with suing FEMA for trying to ban media access to recovery of the dead in New Orleans."
A skeptical Gary Farber, on FEMA's claims that the request was made out of respect for the dead: "And bad PR for FEMA is the furthest thing from their minds. Rest assured."
RESPONSE: Also Known Affectionately As "The Blame Game"
Liberal Crooks and Liars hosts video of a timeline of events from MSNBC's "Countdown" and adds comment: "As we all know, Bush's idiotic claim that nobody anticipated the levees would be breached is exposed immediately. Just think about it. How in God's name could our President say something so false that is so well documented on national TV?" Right Wing Nut House's Rick Moran has a timeline that has been widely-linked by conservative blogs. Dean Esmay is impressed: "This should help cut through a lot of the crap in discussions over the next few weeks, as it dispels many of the things being claimed on both the right and the left." Andrew Sullivan isn't: "Alas, much of what he says the feds were doing is largely reports of what they said they were doing ... He also omits some of the worst Bush gaffes, and any account, as he concedes, of what wasn't done."
Conservative Scared Monkeys, on the ongoing disagreement between Blanco and N.O. Mayor Ray Nagin over how to handle the situation: "The continual lack of foresight and leadership demonstrated by Governor Blanco has been catastrophically incompetent. Certainly Mayor Nagin has been no pillar of leadership; however, he has some flashes of normalcy where he doesn't seem to be completely over his head. On the other hand, Governor Blanco seems like she may need to be shown the door. And still the Governor cannot pull the trigger on issuing a mandatory evacuation."
Volokh Conspiracy's David Bernstein is one of several to pick up on a Washington Post article whose subhead explains about LA: "State Leads in Army Corps Spending, but Millions Had Nothing to Do With Floods." Bernstein writes, the problem "was not a lack of funding (Louisiana receives more than any other state), but an intentional direction by Louisiana politicians of such funds to pork barrel projects that would provide immediate political benefits instead of to boring flood control. Indeed, the article suggests that the Corps of Engineers exists almost entirely to fund pork barrel projects. So much for those who argue that the essential problem was parsimonious Republicans or a weak state. The essential problem (beyond Mother Nature), as is often the case, was short-sighted politicians."
Hewitt's radio producer, Duane "Generalissimo" Patterson, posts a transcript from the 9/7 show at Radioblogger, where FNC's Major Garrett discussed his report that LA's "state-based" DHS blocked the Red Cross "from delivering supplies to the Superdome" after the storm had passed on 8/29. Right Wing News posts an excerpt. PunditGuy: "Picture that for a moment -- Red Cross trucks, with supplies (Food, Water, Personal Hygenic Products), standing by just after the hurricane calmed down ready to go in and care for refugees. But no, they were blocked by the locals -- NOT by the federal government, and more importantly, NOT by George W. Bush." Back at Radioblogger, Patterson calls it a "very disturbing story for those on the left that want to play the blame game regarding the reaction to the Katrina."
RECRIMINATIONS: Can't We All Just Get Along?
Hugh Hewitt, Dems' Katrina-related criticism of Bush generally and House Min. Leader Nancy Pelosi's comment that Bush is "dangerous" specifically: "Now they want to blame Bush for [Dem Gov. Kathleen] Blanco, fire Brown instead of demanding answers from Nagin, and generally want to try and politicize a disaster that most Americans just want addressed as speedily and humanely as possible. You have to hand it to the Dems, they are nothing if not consistent --consistently hysterical, and consistently wrong."
Patrick Ruffini comments on the 9/7 Dan Balz's Washington Post analysis of the partisan climate in DC. Ruffini thinks Balz overlooks the Internet left: "Four years ago, Daily Kos was barely a glimmer in our eye, Joe Lieberman was a frontrunner for the 2004 nomination, Howard Dean was still considered a 'moderate,' the DLC was still ascendant, the words 'liberal' and 'lefty' were almost never spoken in polite conversation, The New Republic represented the mainstream of Democratic thinking inside the Beltway and you wouldn't think twice about calling David Corn and The Nation 'far-left.' As I've documented, the party's vitriolic reaction to Katrina was shaped on the blogs. Had those blogs been around on 9/11, we would have seen the same response, with immediate cries of 'Bush knew.'"
DC lobbyist Pat Cleary writes at the NAM blog, labor "has been conspicuously silent" while Wal-Mart has donated $17M+ in assistance. "The group that wastes hundreds of millions of dollars on political efforts with which their members disagree -- and on fighting Wal-Mart -- now see themselves shamed by Wal-Mart's enormous show of charity." SEIU-backed Wal-Mart Watch comments on same: "Even those of us who are Wal-Mart's most ardent critics can acknowledge that Wal-Mart has done well to has done well to open its deep pockets and its stores to the victims of this terrible tragedy. But, as the world's most powerful and profitable company, they can do more. So we'd like to begin that conversation here. What more can Wal-Mart do?"
At NRO's The Corner, Kate O'Beirne offers a different take on the Salt Lake Tribune article that yesterday liberal blogs had highlighted for its report that Bush was using firefighters in photo ops: "According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the 1,000 firefighters whose local departments have loaned them to FEMA for 30 days of relief work first had to sit through training that included 'a sexual harassment class.' They will be deployed in pairs to distribute fliers and FEMA's phone number..."
NRO's Jonah Goldberg, on the death toll: "I recall that when Giuliani was asked what he thought the death toll would be after 9/11 he said "more than we can bear" or something close to that. It was hailed as a brilliant and noble way to duck the question when the question needed ducking. Maybe it says something that others with a lot more experience with this sort of thing haven't ventured a guess in the wake of Katrina?"
RUMINATIONS: Ready Or Not
At TPM Cafe, Reed Hundt offers 10 things the gov't should do to rebuild New Orleans. Among them: "Give people freedom of choice: let them have cash and vouchers for transportation, food, clothing, housing, and then let them make choices about where to go and what to do." And: "Take the opportunity to design and build the most efficient and secure and environmentally sound transportation, port, oil and gas, business and residential communities in the world." Also: "Set high and explicit goals, and meet them. Don't talk about 'years and years': be specific about what is to be done and when." In a lengthy and multiply-updated post, Instapundit offers a wide range of lessons to be taken from Katrina.
In the wake of Katrina, price gouging is one topic being debated in the right-blogosphere ("Thought of the Day," 9/7 Blogometer). At Tech Central Station, Iain Murray (late of The Edge of England's Sword) argues that price gouging is "one of the great myths of our time." Professor Bainbridge agrees. But PrawfsBlawg argues that Murray's "straight forward application of old-school neoclassical economics" is missing the fact that markets don't necessarily behave rationally in disaster-ridden areas.
SENATE '06: St. Paul
Cleveland-based liberal hawk Tim Russo at Democracy Guy cites speculation at Daily Kos, MyDD and Rep. Sherrod Brown's (D-OH) Grow Ohio that ex-House candidate Paul Hackett (D) is about to announce for OH SEN: "That puckering sound you hear is the kiss of death from the lefty blogosphere." He predicts: "Hackett runs. Blogs go insane in the membrane, launch orgy of anti-war Hackett support." Hackett "squeaks through" the primary, then "Blog volunteers descend on Ohio and start knocking on doors waving Noam Chomsky in their faces. Voters slam doors in their faces. Hackett starts to remind voters of everything they hate about Democrats. DSCC de-targets the race. Blogs cry treachery, blame DSCC for pulling out of a losing race. Blogs raise more money. Hackett gets clobbered in general election by a Mike DeWine who, while pathetic, isn't as vulnerable as everyone's been saying he is. Ohio Dems sweep everything except the Senate seat. Blogs then call the wahmbulance and get the hell out of Ohio. Ohio Democrats are left to pick up the pieces. Can't wait."
RUMORMONGERING: Somehow We Think This Is The Last You'll Hear Of This
From Katrina-blogger Jacob Appelbaum to tech journalist Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing to the diaries of Daily Kos to Little Green Footballs the following rumor has been moving: "The 17th street levee was bombed by the Army Corps of Engineers to save the more valuable real estate in the city." Appelbaum and Jardin indicate the reports are unsubstantiated; the Daily Kos contributor highlights it as a possibility; LGF dismisses it as hysteria and notes: "Comments to this diary entry run the gamut from 'highly skeptical' to 'barking moonbat.' Cointelpro ravers mingle with the relative sane. It's a depressing microcosm of what's wrong with the modern left."
Right Wing News' John Hawkins quotes more extensively from the initial claim, by "NOLA evacuee Clara Barthelemy." Hawkins: "I did a little more searching around and I found that the ultra-lefties at the British Guardian also got in on the act, although in the version of the story they published, the government didn't bomb the levees, they just deliberately opened the flood gates ... After doing a bit more research on this story, I left the mainstream Guardian and ended right back where I started, at ... Daily Kos, where Spacebuddy008 had up a post called 'Any0ne? MSM Labor Day night,-Locals say explosives opened 9th ward levee.'"
BLOGS VS. THE BELTWAY: Never To Be Heard Of Again?
Markos Moulitsas explains what happened to his anti-DLC initiative (see 9/7 and 8/23 Blogometers) in a brief post: "Some people are asking about the DLC thing. Well, there are actually more important things right now than that. Katrina has center stage, and will for a while."
BLOGGER SPOTLIGHT: Chance Meeting With Taranto
Today the Blogometer talks to the Wall Street Journal's James Taranto, who writes the web column Best of the Web Today.
What is your full name?
James Taranto
What is your age?
39
Where did you grow up?
Mostly in the Los Angeles area.
Where do you live now?
New York
What is your occupation? Have you ever worked on a political campaign or for the mainstream media?
I work for the mainstream media now -- editing OpinionJournal.com, The Wall Street Journal's editorial page Web site, on which Best of the Web Today (which I describe as a column in blog format) appears. I've never worked for a political campaign.
When did you start blogging and why?
OpinionJournal.com launched on July 28, 2000, and Best of the Web was originally an unsigned feature. Ira Stoll, now managing editor of the New York Sun, would prepare it, and I'd do some editing and post it. The late Bob Bartley first conceived of it as a sort of "reading list," but during the 2000 campaign I started writing some of my own commentaries and including them in the column, and as time went on I wrote more and more. Finally we started including my byline in June 2001, though Ira still contributed until he left later that year to go to the Sun.
What has been your favorite post, or favorite story to write about, in that time?
I guess the most fun story was the Slate "monkeyfishing" hoax, described here. On a more serious note, I'm proud of having been ahead of the curve in identifying such trends as the rise of the Angry Left, the weakness of the Kerry campaign's Vietnam-hero strategy, and the insubstantiality of the Valerie Plame kerfuffle.
Describe your typical blogging schedule. And what is your average output?
I typically roll out of bed around 9 a.m., spend anywhere from one to four hours reading e-mail, then anywhere from one to three hours writing the column. I post the draft and send it to my copy editor, while I go through the e-mails I've received while reading earlier ones and writing the column, sometimes adding additional items. Then I compile the list of reader contributors and post the whole thing, usually around 3-4 p.m. My typical output is from 8,000 to 12,000 words a week, including quoted material.
Who is your favorite political blogger? Favorite non-political blogger?
Mickey Kaus and Glenn Reynolds are my favorite political bloggers -- Mickey for offbeat analysis and Glenn for copious links. I don't have a favorite nonpolitical one.
Who is your favorite mainstream media columnist?
I've gotta name a few: Mark Steyn for writing, Bob Novak for reporting and Michael Barone for political insight.
What is your favorite television news program, either network or cable?
"Special Report With Brit Hume"
What MSM-produced websites (i.e. newspapers, magazines) do you visit on a daily basis?
Too many to list.
What non-MSM websites (i.e. blogs) do you visit on a daily basis?
Kausfiles, InstaPundit, Drudge Report, Roger L. Simon, Oxblog, Volokh Conspiracy, Lucianne.com and many others.
How often, or do you ever, read a newspaper in its dead-tree (i.e. print) form?
I get the Journal, the New York Sun and USA Today in print form.
How do you see the new media and old media affecting and influencing each other in the next five years?
There will be more overlap, with MSM outlets increasingly setting up new-media ventures and seeing bloggers as a source of talent. Bloggers will continue to keep the MSM hones, though it's hard to predict if on balance the reaction will be more appreciative or defensive.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Not Measuring Up To Potential?
Earlier this week at MyDD, Chris Bowers posted another report comparing the liberal and conservative blogosphere, this time about their activity during and after Katrina: "In both blogospheres, most of the gain in total audience size has been primarily to the benefit of the top tier blogs." Plus, the top 6 liberal blogs "now make up 61.7% of progressive traffic in the top 100, up from 58.3% in September. Incidentally, all six of these blogs now have more traffic than Instapundit, which remains the highest trafficked conservative blog." Also: "While the progressive blogosphere is leaving the conservative blogosphere far, far behind in terms of audience size, the hurricane may have revealed the underlying activist potential of the conservative blogosphere. While the liberal blog fundraising drive for Katrina victims has yet to reach $200,000, the conservative blogosphere has put together more than $1.2M."
LEST WE FORGET: Bad Company
Domain Rookie highlights some embarrassingly ill-named business websites, including ExpertsExchange.com -- which in all lower-case can be easily read as ExpertSexChange.com -- and TherapistFinder.com, which shouldn't take much thinking to figure out.
SCOTUS SPECIAL: Very Quiet Funeral
What the blogs are saying about the John Roberts nod for CJ of the U.S. and the other SCOTUS vacancy:
REHNQUIST: What's Your Handel?
SCOTUSblog's Lyle Denniston reports on Rehnquist's funeral: "Washington likes to do state funerals in the grand manner: big church, deep solemnity, soaring music, weighty homiletics. Of those, the funeral service of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist on Wednesday had only the church and the music: it was largely a family affair, filled with chuckles and some hearty laughs ... Even the majestic chorus from Handel's 'Messiah' was sung, not for its richness, depth or historic meaning, but because it was a personal favorite of Bill Rehnquist: for 50 consecutive years, he had made it a point to go to a 'Messiah' performance every December."
CONFIRMATION: Protect Your Cred
Yale's Jack Balkin, on why Dems should fight Roberts even if confirmation seems likely: "History teaches that Presidents moderate" their SCOTUS picks when the opposition party "can credibly threaten to make the confirmation process difficult and consume substantial amounts of the President's political capital. ... Thus, the most important opposition to a Supreme Court nomination occurs *before* the nominee is publicly announced. After the announcement, the President is likely to dig in his heels and fight. But Presidents may choose more moderate candidates to avoid a fight in advance."
Conservative Balloon Juice's John Cole, on a new MoveOn ad that will tie Roberts' confirmation to the socio-economic disparities exposed by the Katrina aftermath: "I will publicly acknowledge and credit anyone who can explain how this is not the shameless exploitation of a tragedy for immediate and unrelated political gain." He jokingly suggests "a Kanye West cameo: 'Judge John Roberts doesn't care about black people.'"
Beldar Blog's William Dyer had noticed on 7/24 that Senate Jud Cmte Chair Arlen Specter had made curious use of the phrase "superprecedent" in a New York Times op-ed, and this week he confirms that Specter "deliberately and calculatedly" used that op-ed to "lay groundwork for some position he intended to take." The Post reported on 9/6 that Specter "told Roberts that the 1973 landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade has been followed by 38 Supreme Court rulings meant to refine or clarify its guidelines, and he asked, 'Is Roe a super-precedent?'" Roberts reportedly didn't answer. Beldar Blog doesn't know if Roberts will "humor" Specter's surmised attempt to get a commitment on Roe v. Wade, but assumes: "I'm quite certain that Judge Roberts is too diplomatic" to respond in public by saying: "'Did you just make that up, Arlen? What've you been smokin', Senator?'"
At Balkinization, Georgetown law prof Marty Lederman examines a Washington Post story about how Roberts was the "point person" for the Bush WH when it urged the SCOTUS to overturn a law requiring "minority preferences in broadcast licensing." Noting that the case in question falls outside the usual circumstances when the WH makes such a recommendation, Lederman writes: "It would, in this respect, be extremely interesting to see the correspondence and memoranda between the White House and DOJ concerning the case, and to see how John Roberts convinced President Bush not only that a law he had signed was unconstitutional, but also that the Administration should urge the Court to invalidate it."
THE REPLACEMENTS: Pole Sitting
In an unscientific poll, GOP-leaning Confirm Them asks readers to indicate their preference in 3 areas: the next SCOTUS justice if female, the next SCOTUS justice if male, and most important considerations. Readers are allowed to name as many as they please. Results here (Warning: this page may start talking to you about a product you don't want to buy... failing that, you may be blinded by a blinking banner ad.) With <200 votes recorded in any one category early this a.m., Janice Rogers Brown leads the 1st category, followed by Edith Jones and Priscilla Owen. In the 2nd, Michael Luttig laps his contenders, with only Miguel Estrada and Emilio Garza attracting meaningful support otherwise. In the 3rd category, "Judicial philosophy and temperament" is by far the most important consideration, with "Age" trailing distantly and "Race" and "Gender" barely registering. We'll update this again on 9/9.
Brad Berenson at NRO's Bench Memos opines, Bush made his initial Roberts nod "based solely on merit and judicial philosophy in the long-term best interests of the nation" and so "it seems reasonable to suppose that he will make the same decision the same way the second time around" -- this may mean a woman or minority, but it seems likely that "white males won't be categorically excluded from consideration either." Given that, he names a few dark-horse candidates: judges Steve Colloton from the Eighth Circuit and Jeff Sutton from the Sixth Circuit, who fit the Roberts mold.
Posted by at September 8, 2005 12:24 PM
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