The battle that was stopped before it started may be about to re-ignite in the Senate. Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor retired from the Supreme Court today, clearing the way for President Bush to nominate a replacement and for the Senate to pick up the fight where it left off (remember the much-vaunted nuclear option and filibustering?)
The grinding of metal can be heard coming from Senate offices as the Senators sharpen their swords and prepare to fight one another on the battlefield of the Senate over Justice O’Connor’s replacement.
The rhetoric was already starting with Democratic Senators sending President Bush thinly veiled warnings to consult them before nominating anyone to replace Justice O’Connor. Other Senators from both parties held what are being described as “dueling” press conferences to vent their spleens and to put their opponents in their places before a candidate is even announced.
The press immediately went into a tizzy, special interest groups began powering up and Limbaugh went nuts, saying the Supreme Court is a political organization and that the press’s use of the term “swing vote” to describe O’Connor’s voting record (another political term blasted by Limbaugh) proves it.
Limbaugh sure wasn’t talking that way when the 2000 Presidential Election stalled in Florida and the Supreme Court voted 5-4 (with O’Connor voting with the majority mind you) to end the Gore recount. How times change.
Get used to the rhetoric because unless something else happens over the 4th of July weekend, this will be all that you hear about on all the networks. Hopefully the press and the politicians remember that Independence Day is on the 4th.
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