{"id":524129,"date":"2010-04-12T10:42:57","date_gmt":"2010-04-12T14:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/?p=81905"},"modified":"2010-04-12T10:42:57","modified_gmt":"2010-04-12T14:42:57","slug":"gop-on-offense-ahead-of-supreme-court-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/524129","title":{"rendered":"GOP on Offense Ahead of Supreme Court Showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As expected, Republicans this weekend already began threatening trouble for Democrats if President Obama nominates someone left of mainstream to succeed Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Stevens announced Friday that he plans to retire from the court this summer.<\/p>\n<p>Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), speaking on MSNBC Sunday, and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), appearing on ABC, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.philly.com\/inquirer\/world_us\/90592424.html\">did not rule out the use of a filibuster<\/a> during the nomination process, expected to take place this year. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah.) told <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/hostednews\/ap\/article\/ALeqM5jp9jrwkjig6vQnONc-Zyk9lChX8wD9F093GO0\">The Associated Press <\/a>that the president is in for &#8220;a whale of a fight&#8221; if he nominates an activist judge.<span id=\"more-81905\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>And Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/story\/0,2933,590744,00.html\">on FOX News<\/a>, reconfirmed a statement he made Friday indicating that he is open to opposing an up-or-down vote. Additionally, Alexander made clear he may vote against the nominee. &#8220;If the president picks someone from the fringe instead of from the  middle, or if he picks someone who will apply their feelings instead of  applying the law, then that might be an extraordinary case when I can&#8217;t  vote for that nominee,&#8221; Alexander said.<\/p>\n<p>Speculation over potential nominees includes several individuals widely regarded as being the most likely suspects. They include: Solicitor General <a href=\"http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/osg\/\">Elena Kagan<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cadc.uscourts.gov\/internet\/home.nsf\/content\/VL+-+Judges+-+MBG\">Merrick  Garland<\/a>, D.C. federal appellate judge; and federal appellate judge <a href=\"http:\/\/www.law.uchicago.edu\/faculty\/wood-d\">Diane Wood<\/a> in Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>Over at National Review, Abigail Thernstrom questions <a href=\"http:\/\/corner.nationalreview.com\/post\/?q=MmZhZmY4NjU1NGRhYTg1M2EwNmZlZTc2N2I2MjJiMDY=\">why a black nominee, such as Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, has yet to be floated<\/a> by her NRO colleagues.<\/p>\n<p>And it&#8217;s no surprise that this morning&#8217;s latest buzz has some bloggers in a tizzy: &#8220;<a id=\"ctl00_cphMain_ucBlogPosts_rptPosts_ctl00_ucPost_hlnkBlogPostTitle\" href=\"http:\/\/townhall.com\/blog\/g\/976dd99a-1849-4a43-bfd6-b88494c8e978\">Oh  Please God No: On Hillary Clinton for Supreme Court<\/a> &#8221; Kevin Glass writes this morning on Townhall.com. Clinton is the latest atypical <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/hostednews\/ap\/article\/ALeqM5iVIF9OnrgW2kTS53D8szV4l9GLewD9F1G8B02\">candidate being floated as a nominee<\/a>. Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm is among the other outliers being discussed, according to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/hostednews\/ap\/article\/ALeqM5jy_SnSbmk7FaWoIcgt4nPJWsqMzAD9EVNM080\">multiple<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/voices.washingtonpost.com\/ezra-klein\/2010\/04\/the_next_justice.html\">news<\/a> outlets.<\/p>\n<p>But conservative blogs in general are pretty quiet on the SCOTUS short list this morning. No Monday posts as of 10:20am today from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.redstate.com\/\">RedState<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/littlegreenfootballs.com\/weblog\/\">Little Green Footballs<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/michellemalkin.com\/\">Michelle Malkin<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As expected, Republicans this weekend already began threatening trouble for Democrats if President Obama nominates someone left of mainstream to succeed Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Stevens announced Friday that he plans to retire from the court this summer. Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), speaking on MSNBC Sunday, and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), appearing on ABC, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5036,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-524129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5036"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}