Supreme Court nominees

It seems Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid wants best buddy Bill Frist (majority leader and all-around putz) to know that at least some sitting members of the Senate are finely-suited to the Supreme Court as far as he's concerned. He even went so far as to choose only Senators from states with Republican governors, so that the GOP could be assured the Senatorial replacement would be a Republican.

It's worth noting that the two Senators occasionally mentioned as potential Supreme Court nominees, Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and John Cornyn of Texas, are not among Reid's choices. This is Reid's way of telling Frist that Kyl and Cornyn will not get free passes just because of Senatorial courtesy.

Reid's picks? Mike DeWine, the pudgy balding fellow from Ohio who was one of the Magnificent 14 who struck the filibuster deal a few weeks ago; Mike Crapo, of Idaho, whose name is pronounced KRAY-poe and hasn't done anything noteworthy; Mel Martinez, of Florida, who is Hispanic (Bush has said he wants to nominate the first Hispanic to the Supreme Court--Alberto Gonzalez is usually the guy mentioned); and Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, another of the Magnificent 14 and by a wide margin of the smartest and most reasonable members of the Senate. This is an interesting list. None have ever been judges (neither was Chief Justice Earl Warren, former governor of California), though that is not a requirement for Supreme Court membership.

More after the jump.


Martinez was a trial lawyer (and a graduate of FSU Law, my emergency-backup school), a job that's normally anathema to Republicans. I posted a letter from Martinez' office on this blog not too long ago. I'm still working on my response to it, which I'll also publish. Martinez would be the first Hispanic named to the Court. Whether he'd be more conservative than Alberto Gonzalez is not known; Gonzalez' presumed moderate leanings make him quite unpopular among conservative mouth-foamers. He is very close to George Bush, which helps (but not as close as Gonzalez); the ugly 2004 campaign did a good job of exposing all the potential skeletons in his closet so half of the lengthy background investigation is already done. And Bush could probably press his brother to appoint Katherine Harris to Martinez' seat and get her out of the way for the race against Bill Nelson.

Crapo is a Harvard Law grad and would be the first Mormon on the Supreme Court. He was a partner in a law firm for a few years in Idaho but I don't know what he did. That he was a lawyer of some sort is not unusual in the Senate, so I'm not at all sure why Reid pointed to Crapo as a potential nominee.

DeWine graduated from Ohio Northern Law School and served as a public prosecutor in Ohio early in his career. In addition to his work with the filibuster deal, DeWine is regarded as the Republican Senator most concerned with poverty issues, and is thus fairly popular with the left. Like the rest of the folks on the list, though, DeWine's judicial stances are a mystery.

Lindsey Graham is a great American. He'd like to be President, but I think Chief Justice of the Supreme Court might be an acceptable consolation prize for him given that he has very long odds of ever being elected nationwide. He went to the University of South Carolina law school, and served six years in the Air Force as a JAG; he is still a member of the Air Force Reserves. Like John McCain, he is widely liked by Democrats for his independent streak and willingness to defy his party, but he's also more conservative than any of the other men on this list. The SC GOP bench is very deep and almost anyone could be named to replace him.

I don't know why I bothered to go into all that, since there's pretty much zero chance any of those folks would be named to the Court. And none of the Justices have announced an intention to retire. Still, it's fun to see all the maneuvering going on.