Bush has nominated John Roberts to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
My knee-jerk reaction was that you don't nominate someone from outside of the Supreme Court to be Chief Justice, but historically, that's happened 13 times out of 16. Previous Chief Justices Earl Warren and Warren Earl Burger were nominated from outside the Supreme Court, for example.
Of course, historically, the Senate's "advize and consent" role was usually a rubber-stamp.
I don't know enough about Roberts to claim that this would be a disaster, or even that he'd do damage at all. But that's part of the problem: I don't know enough about Roberts.
And I doubt the Senate does, either.
And my cynically side is trying to figure out whether Bush is using the New Orleans debacle as a distraction from this nomination, or whether he's trying to use this nomination as a distraction from the New Orleans debacle.
My knee-jerk reaction was that you don't nominate someone from outside of the Supreme Court to be Chief Justice, but historically, that's happened 13 times out of 16. Previous Chief Justices Earl Warren and Warren Earl Burger were nominated from outside the Supreme Court, for example.
Of course, historically, the Senate's "advize and consent" role was usually a rubber-stamp.
I don't know enough about Roberts to claim that this would be a disaster, or even that he'd do damage at all. But that's part of the problem: I don't know enough about Roberts.
And I doubt the Senate does, either.
And my cynically side is trying to figure out whether Bush is using the New Orleans debacle as a distraction from this nomination, or whether he's trying to use this nomination as a distraction from the New Orleans debacle.