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U.S. Supreme Court

Bush listens to high court suggestions

The president meets with senators - and even gets a suggestion from his wife - but doesn't tip his hand on his nominee.

By BILL ADAIR
Published July 13, 2005

WASHINGTON - At a White House breakfast meeting Tuesday, President Bush got an earful about replacing Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court.

Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, urged Bush to pick someone other than a judge. Democrats told him to choose a Hispanic. During a TV interview, first lady Laura Bush offered her own view: She wants her husband to pick a woman.

Bush's breakfast meeting with four key senators - Specter, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Minority Leader Harry Reid and Patrick Leahy, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee - was part of the White House effort to consult both parties before choosing a nominee. Democrats, who had prodded the White House to talk with them, said they were encouraged by the meeting but asked for more discussions with actual names.

Reid said he was cautiously optimistic that Bush would pick someone acceptable to the Democrats.

"I feel comfortable and good that we are going to have someone that is a consensus candidate - I certainly hope so," Reid said.

He said Bush asked Democrats to call the president or his aides with suggestions. Even Tuesday's menu was accommodating. The senators could order any breakfast they wanted.

Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania battling Hodgkin's disease, said Bush should avoid nominating a judge because judges don't have enough contact with ordinary people and are too focused on "the footnotes and the semicolons."

Specter, a former prosecutor, said politicians make better Supreme Court justices because they're more in touch with real people.

Meeting with reporters outside the White House, Specter complained about Supreme Court justices who strike down laws because they believe "Congress hasn't thought it through. But somehow, the court has thought it through," he said with a touch of sarcasm. "Who are they to say they can think it through and we can't?"

Having a senator on the court would help immensely, Specter said.

"It would be good to have some diversity," he said, noting that the court had several former politicians when it decided Brown vs. Board of Education, the landmark school desegregation case.

Recognizing that Bush may want to nominate the first Hispanic justice, Democrats suggested three Hispanic judges. The first lady, who was in Cape Town, South Africa, said on NBC's Today Show: "I would really like him to name another woman."

Bush said he was surprised by his wife's comments but said, "We're definitely considering people from all walks of life, and I can't wait to hear her advice in person when she gets back."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan declined to discuss specific suggestions. "The president welcomes all those who are expressing their ideas," he said.

The senators who attended the meeting said Bush would like his nominee to be confirmed by early October when the court's new term begins, but they said it was likely hearings would not begin until late August or early September.

Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Florida, said he was pleased with the president's effort to consult with both parties. "The hard part is undoubtedly going to come once there is a name out there and the reality of that comes to bear," he said.

Bush "is going to pick a conservative because he's said that in two elections," Martinez said. ". . . We should give that person a fair hearing, it should be an orderly and decent process. It should not be a circus."

Groups on both sides are poised to launch expensive lobbying campaigns, but Specter said he wants them to pull back.

"I think the word ought to go out that the special interest groups vastly overstate their influence and that what they're doing is counterproductive and a lot of the times insulting," he said. "To the extent we can turn that off, the whole process is much much better off."

[Last modified July 13, 2005, 00:10:12]