SHOCK! Sandra Day O'Connor Steps Down — Page 3

PLum, I love your eternal optimism in all things Bush.
But I will say, I so very much hope you are correct.

Thanks for making the last happy point I left out of my post, PJ. The conservative appointee who turns out to be not as conservative as expected is a surprisingly common occurence. Other fun examples include Blackmun and, most memorably, Earl Warren. Wouldn't it be fun if Bush's big legacy in the Supreme Court turned out to be an outright liberal?

Okay, it's not happening, but the thought gives me a good laugh.

Updated On: 7/1/05 at 03:05 PM

I didn't know about the sibling thing, Millie. Cool. :)

I was thinking about the identity politics involved in choosing a replacement, too, but I don't think it will be as much of a factor as it would have been without the presence of Ginsberg. There will still be a designated female if O'Connor is replaced by a man. And if that man is Gonzalez, we'll have our first Hispanic justice.

Justthefacts, Karl Rove has made it very clear: When this administration says "Americans" they mean "Republicans." The Democrats are the Un-Americans.

Papa, you are wrong when you say, "for anyone who's been following the supreme court in any way lately this is anything but a shock as it's been bandied about for weeks now that it would be sandy who stepped down rather than willlie."

AP says, "O'Connor's decision - so closely held that a son did not know in advance - marked the first retirement in 11 years on an aging court."

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I'd say if Bush appoints Bolton to the U.N. while Congress is recessed, he's gonna have very hard time getting the more moderate members of Congress to accept any of his more conservative Supreme Court nominations.

With a 43% approval rating and midterm elections coming up, I don't know that Bush has the political capital to get two ultraconservative judges through the Senate, anyway. Let a moderate replace O'Connor and save the fight for the ultraconservative for Rhenquist's replacement.

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well gee, Plum, respond to Margo only as if I hadn't said exactly the same thing before him!

POUT!

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uh huh. Sure. The Sondheim excuse. Like I ain't heard THAT one before!

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apparently the only person who knew this was coming was bww's own papalovesmambo.

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

WASHINGTON - Sandra Day O'Connor stepped down unexpectedly from the Supreme Court on Friday, closing out a career as the first female justice and the anchor of a shaky majority for abortion rights.

O'Connor, 75 and a breast cancer survivor, kept her retirement a surprise even from her son, and it was not until Friday morning that she dispatched her letter, hand-delivered to the president.

It seemed to catch Bush's team off guard. The president and his staff had long been anticipating a retirement letter from Chief Justice William Rehnquist, 80 and ailing with thyroid cancer.

It seems, however that Papalovesmambo knew this was going to happen. "If you follow the courts, you'd realize this was expected," Ohio resident Papalovesmambo exclaimed as he hurriedly returned to the International House of Pancakes where Mr. Mambo was leading a lecture on the Rotti-Tutti Fresh-and-Fruitti breakfast meal conspiracy that he claims was "funded by Democrats" out to sink the egg industry.

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yeah, me and bill kristol, for one:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/758akmdq.asp

the rumors were out there, the signs were there, but for those who chose to be spoonfed their news by the mainstream media, please, by all means continue to trumpet the great shock.

and robbo, your knowledge of the rutti tutti simply confrims that the conspiracy is firmly in place, it just might be that it's a conspiracy of morons, not democrats.

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Updated On: 7/2/05 at 10:24 AM