GOP Senator wants O’Connor to be Chief Justice
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Republican Senator wants O’Connor promoted; not retired:
A liberal Republican who owes his re-election victory last year to the President may be emerging as the greatest threat to the chief executive’s ability to name conservative justices to the Supreme Court. Speaking to a nationally-televised audience on July 10, Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) helped to fuel a Democrat plan aimed at retaining Sandra Day O’Connor to replace soon-to-retire William Rehnquist as the Court’s Chief Justice.
Speaking to the CBS news program ‘Face the Nation,’ Specter promoted the idea of an O’Connor promotion by saying:
“”I think it would be very tempting if the president said to Justice O’Connor, ‘You could help the country now.’ .. She has received so much adulation that a confirmation proceeding would be more like a coronation, and she might be willing to stay on for a year or so.””
Specter’s statements are clearly out of step with the often-repeated promise by President Bush to place conservative justices like Clarence Thomas and William Rehnquist on the Supreme Court. For example, in an October 2000 television debate with Al Gore, Bush said, “”I’ll put competent judges on the bench, people who will strictly interpret the Constitution and will not use the bench to write social policy. I don’t believe in liberal, activist judges. I believe in strict constructionists.””
Sandra Day O’Connor is anything but a strict constructionist. Her deviation from the Constitution is well-documented, including her support for decisions guaranteeing the legal “”right”” to same-sex sodomy and abortion. According to a WorldNetDaily report in October of 2003, O’Connor’s reliance on foreign law over the U.S. Constitution helped her win the “”World Justice Award”” from the Southern Center for International Studies.
According to the transcript of Specter’s comments found on the CBS News website, Senator Specter said Justice O’Connor was approached about the idea by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). He added that her response to the idea, as he was told, was “”she was flattered [and] that she didn’t say no.””
Family Policy Network (FPN) President Joe Glover criticized Specter for trying to help fuel a promotion for O’Connor, saying the Senator should support the conservative nominees that the President has always promised he would appoint to the Supreme Court, saying:
“”Arlen Specter is biting the very hand that fed him. His presumptuous statements are diametrically opposed to the President’s plan to nominate ‘strict constructionists.’ His actions are a complete betrayal of the same President that saved Specter’s career in 2004.””
Despite major ideological differences between them, President Bush endorsed Specter in 2004 over a conservative primary challenger who nearly beat him. Bush’s support for Specter rankled many conservative Republicans, and may have been the reason the President lost Pennsylvania in his own re-election bid that same year.
Specter refused to acknowledge his obvious support for an O’Connor promotion because he felt his endorsement would create, in his words, “”an upsurge across the country against it.””
Glover concluded:
Arlen Specter knows his liberal ideas are out of step with the nation. That’s why he said his own endorsement for a particular plan of action would bring ‘an upsurge across the country against it.’ Perhaps Arlen Specter should let the President nominate ‘strict constructionist’ justices, just as he promised the American people who twice-elected him to do so.
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RELATED LINKS:
Arlen Specter suggests Sandra Day O’Connor should become Chief Justice:
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/face_071005.pdf
Specter narrowly edges primary challenger with help of President Bush:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04119/307849.stm
O’Connor relies on foreign law over the U.S. Constitution:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35367
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