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Bush, Senators to Meet on Successor to O'Connor

Posted on: Sunday, 18 September 2005, 09:00 CDT

President Bush has invited key lawmakers to a White House meeting next week to begin consultations on a successor to retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, officials said Friday.

The meeting, to be held Wednesday, signals the White House is moving on the matter while Judge John G. Roberts Jr. awaits confirmation as chief justice.

Bush invited Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., as well as Sen. Arlen Specter, R- Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the panel's senior Democrat, the officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to disclose the invitations.

One official said the White House has begun making telephone calls to key senators to get their views on a successor for O'Connor.

The meeting would mirror a session Bush held with the same four lawmakers several weeks ago as he began consultations to fill the first Supreme Court vacancy in 11 years.

At the time, O'Connor had announced her retirement, and Bush subsequently selected Roberts to fill her seat.

Roberts' nomination was pending in the Senate when Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died nearly two weeks ago. Bush quickly announced he wanted Roberts to succeed Rehnquist, leaving O'Connor on the bench until a successor could be named, confirmed by the Senate and sworn in.

Following hearings that ended Thursday, Roberts' confirmation is virtually assured. Roberts, 50, a former Reagan administration lawyer, is an appeals court judge based in Washington.

Wednesday's meeting -- and others likely to follow -- allow the White House to say that Bush consulted with senators before announcing his nominee. The administration has said the president and his aides reached out to most senators before the president settled on Roberts when he was nominated to succeed O'Connor.

Yet while consulting with senators, the White House has made the point that Bush did not intend to allow lawmakers to make his selection for him or to have a veto over the person he nominates.

"It's a good first step," Leahy said Friday night, "but real consultation is a two-way street."

As far as Roberts is concerned, the only real question left about his nomination is how many Democrats will vote for him to become the nation's 17th chief justice.

This week's grueling four-day Senate confirmation hearings only confirmed for most of the Senate's Republican majority that Bush's nominee to succeed Rehnquist is an ideal choice.

Since Democrats don't plan to filibuster, they must decide if it's worth casting a symbolic vote against the 50-year-old Roberts, knowing they can't stop his confirmation and that Bush soon will choose another conservative to succeed O'Connor, a swing vote on the court.

Source: Buffalo News

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