Just heard through the D.C. grapevine that Sandra Day O’Connor just retired. Very reliable source. I’ll try to find more.
Update: Yep, Fox News is going with it, live at the Supreme Court. They have it from “three separate sources that the resignation of Sandra Day O’Connor is imminent.”
Man your battle stations, folks. I’m right outside the city in Arlington right now, but I can hear blood pressures rising from here. A fight to replace a Supreme Court swing vote. This is gonna be a fight for the ages.
Update 2: I love it that she turned in her resignation on a Friday before a holiday weekend. Half of Washington (and certainly most of the Members) are outta here already. Supreme Court justices– they’re not just above the Constitution; they’re above the D.C. news cycle too! The nerve.
Update 3: Fox News has a copy of the resignation letter addressed to President Bush. Bush statement in the Rose Garden in 40 minutes. He won’t announce a successor.
Update 4:
- AP story
- A round-up of Townhall speculation from the past week.
- Frist’s floor tribute to O’Connor.
- The retirement is personal for the Volokh Conspiracy. Free Sasha!
- Ankle Biting Pundits ready for an “orgy of hate” on the Left.
- Kossacks are worried about Alberto “The Inquisitor” Gonzales.
- Conservatives have been worried about him, too.
- Novak on Gonzales
Update 5: Bush video here. Insists on a fair debate and vote, but says he’ll consult with Members on his picks. Speech text, here.
Update 6:
- Malkin chimes in.
- SCOTUSblog has early reaction and thoughts on the importance of O’Connor’s vote over the years.
- Red State hears from Hill sources that Rehnquist’s leaving, too.
- Polipundit says this is a liberal’s worst nightmare.
- O’Connor O’Thoughts and Tributes at Townhall.
- Ken Mehlman says O’Connor “shattered the glass ceiling.”
- Bench Memos paints the political picture of the nomination process.
Update 7: Ted Kennedy has fighting words. He wants the President to avoid giving the “advise” function of the Senate short shrift, and pick someone who will bring us together. Read: Capitulate, Cowboy!
Update 8: Bush won’t announce a nominee until after he gets back from his G-8 trip on July 8. Looks like some folks may be able to leave town this weekend after all. Maybe? Probably not.
Update 9: I’m heading to the Hill for a strategy meeting on all this business, so I’ve got to run, but before I go:
- Townhall blogger Laura has written a farewell ditty for Sandra to the tune of “Sandra Dee” from “Grease.” Hee hee.
- Confirm Them has a nomination timeline. A confirmation by mid-September? Dare I hope?
- The Townhall homepage has a huge round-up (plug, plug).
- And, a friend e-mails me to say Fox is reporting Bush got O’Connor’s letter at 10:18 a.m. Did we hear before the Pres? I knew Wizbang readers were an influential constituency, but geez…hee hee.
Mary Katharine blogs at the Townhall C-Log, where there is now rampant speculation on O’Connor’s replacement.
Well, oh-KAY! I hope she gets the minimum for her residence.
And that President Bush foregoes Kennedy’s/Democrat’s pretentious requirement for that list of nominees before he nominates individuals (anticipating that there will be two nominees for two vacancies, soon), and nominates people in the conservative who are best suited for the work. That last part will be a huge stumbling block for Democrats.
Well, it’s now being said (FOX) that her resignation is being delivered to the White House “imminently.”
Great timing here…although O’Connor deserves all my respect, as she does everyone else’s, just saying, it’s great timing here. Two conservatives on the Supreme Court, coming up.
You’re giving her crap because she announced her retirement on a Friday before a long weekend? Give me a break.
History in the making folks! Three days to sit and fret before the Canadian Embassy is open again…
Thanks a lot Justice O’Connor.
You just delivered the country into the clutches of the conservative right christians. And you don’t even seem to be in poor health.
What’s your excuse?
Zethon,
I think her retirement announcement on the Friday before the vacation was brilliant. Everyone was expecting it at the beginning of the week when the last of the decisions were handed down. She did it on her own schedule (and will certainly get everyone scrambling over the weekend to figure out who’s to fill the slot).
I call it a battle royale with cheese.
And the battle begins………..
I just hope Gonzales is NOT put on the SC!!
Just to stick it to the demos, Bush should make a recess appointment to the court of someone the democrats are sure to hate – like Bolton. Or Brown.
Are we taking bets on how long it’s going to take the dems to label whoever Pres. Bush nominates as being “OUT OF THE MAINSTREAM” or a “RADICAL”?
Are we taking bets on how long it’s going to take the dems to label whoever Pres. Bush nominates as being “OUT OF THE MAINSTREAM” or a “RADICAL” who is “EXTREME”?
Just to bug the democrats, Bush should make a recess appointment of someone like Brown or Bolton to the court.
How about a recess appointment of Bork?! And yes, I’m trolling (giggles unconTROLLably).
It is odd that Fox gets this scoop, and it is certainly timed to have minimal visibility to the electorate…. which it will impact so drastically. Why do we believe Fox? Just because they are a tool of the owners of the Republican party?
Sorry, folks. It’s been a long night.
Those remaining freedoms we have were starting to get to me. Finally we can do away with the right to differ on abortion. “Reproductive” rights, civil rights, rights to differ in sexual tendency, rights for those with disabilities. Just thinking of all that liberal crap makes me sick. All I care about is me. I don’t care how many people’s lives are abused by our government; I feel ok, that’s all that matters. I don’t care how history textbooks look at me and the freedoms I allowed us to “lose.” I’ll tell my kids not to read ’em.
By the way, why are we called conservatives if we can’t conserve our money, economy, environment, freedom, credibility? Oh, that’s right, it’s because we want to conserve own self-destructive methodology and belief system above all else while imposing it on others. You know, the one that ruins individuals for the sake of specific religion and ideology, overgrown companies — all those important things that politicians unethically support over all else for their own self-interest.
Bush and friends are foaming at the mouth to continue making this whole country their big congregation. And after we all meet on Sunday we’re going to lynch the young mother who wants an abortion, all the gays, all those who *thought* they had a certain “freedom.” Y’all ain’t real Americans, I am. Diversity in America was an accident, a mistake, and we’re going to try and succeed to stem the tide. I love this country.
….effective upon the nomination and confirmation of my successor.
I hope she hasn’t packed her bags cuz I think she’s going to have a long wait.
Dubya will certainly be celebrating this weekend. God help us all!
Trackbacks are being wonky. Mine failed, which makes sense in that there keep being CGI errors when clicking even to get the trackback URL. When I tried again, it claimed to go through, but never registered on this end. Very sad. So in lieu of that, my post was Sandy Swingvote.
Dubya will certainly be celebrating this weekend
Could be that the rats are leaving this sinking ship and doing as much damage as possible first. Maybe getting as much of their money’s worth out of Bush as they can now by using him to plug the hole long enough to get their last digs in, issue the pardons and make their escape
[continuing to ignore Mike, who must be conserving on his lithium and aripiprazole]
Sad to hear this, usually due to health problems, but may an attack of conscience. You never know…
Is unfathomable which posts become troll-bait and which do not. Why this one? Wiz didn’t say anything that would attract them. Is DU on overload?
Tob
Robert Bork for SCOTUS! tanned, rested and ready
She sounded pretty upset about the imminent domain ruling. The Court has been coming out with some pretty strange decisions. Maybe she just got fed up. Could you blame her?
Seems very fathomable to me toby928. It’s not the state of Bork’s skin that bothered (most) people either.
Great scoop!
“She sounded pretty upset about the imminent domain ruling. The Court has been coming out with some pretty strange decisions. Maybe she just got fed up. Could you blame her?”
I wouldn’t blame her at all for being upset but I would for quiting as a response, Oh, FTLOG
“Seems very fathomable to me toby928”
So explain, the other day we had a 300 comment thread for no apparent reason. Why did you choose to troll this post and not others.
Tob
Warren Burger for SCOTUS! death is no excuse.
For those wondering why O’Connor chose to retire now, consider:
She’s 75 years old. I believe she’s a cancer survivor (I know Bader Ginsburg is). I’ve heard that her husband isn’t in the best of health (unconfirmed). Maybe she just wants to quit before she has to wear her robes (figuratively) to his funeral. Or her own.
I wasn’t here the other day tob. I’m here today, visible, identified and suggesting that you may try looking a little deeper. I’m here today because this site had the scoop along with Republican T.V., Fox “news”.
“She’s 75 years old. I believe she’s a cancer survivor (I know Bader Ginsburg is). I’ve heard that her husband isn’t in the best of health (unconfirmed). Maybe she just wants to quit before she has to wear her robes (figuratively) to his funeral. Or her own.”
That all seems reasonable fatman, though the timing seems suspicious.
Great, there goes the summer.
Can’t wait for the cacophany of left/right noise to begin.
Oh, wait, it already has…
More shark stories please!
Debate is noise circlethewagons? It is bad enough that we only have two parties in this country. Two forks of the corporate $erpent’s tongue in my opinion. Not enough depth for sharks either.
By the way, didn’t Bill Krystol predit this?
Yes he did:http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/758akmdq.asp
My opinion of the plugged-in-ness of the smiling assasin goes up!
Tob
PS lets all drink a cold one:
http://www.coolmen.ch/biergarten/biershooter.htm
I am guessing that it’s predictable that Bush will nominate Gonzales but I am hoping that he does not and nominates a committed conservative (which Gonzales is not, in fact, Gonzales is a mild liberal). We’ve already seen what the liberals who declare as conservatives do and that is use the Supreme Court to wage politics of the liberal kind and not to honor the Constitution (not completely, but in tendency and precedent).
I don’t think Gonzales would be a good addition to the Court and that if he’s nominated, it’s going to be because of relationship and not qualification. I’d really like to see President Bush nominate a conservative. A real one.
And that Ted Kennedy and John Kerry and Barbara Boxer and similar need to go home and read just what “checks and balances” actually means. It does not mean that the Senate is the Executive.
MoveOn having just sent out their latest irrational screed in Quicktime is truly pitiful.
But renominating Bork is a great idea…at least theoretically. He’d have made a wonderful contribution to the country, if confirmed.
Hey, Zethon. Don’t you recognize sarcasm when you hear it?
I was right in my earlier post ^^ about the health of O’Connor’s husband. According to Reuters, he has Alzheimer’s disease.
And she’s apparently not going anywhere until her replacement has been confirmed, so can we dispense with the tin foil hat brigade conspiracies and concentrate on the important stuff…like second guessing Bush’s nominee before he’s announced who its going to be?
Does anyone know about this Mukasey guy? Sounds like a good conservative that the dems will have a hard time fighting. Let’s get the deal done.
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