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Bush gets input on justice nominee

Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist departs his home in Arlington, Va., Tuesday. Rehnquist, 80 years old and fighting cancer, is keeping quiet about whether he will join Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in retirement from the court. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Deb Riechmann Associated Press
Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist departs his home in Arlington, Va., Tuesday. Rehnquist, 80 years old and fighting cancer, is keeping quiet about whether he will join Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in retirement from the court. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

WASHINGTON – Aiming to demonstrate an openness to all views, President Bush sought the advice of Democratic as well as Republican senators Tuesday about whom to pick to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. He also got a little unsolicited advice from his wife.

Over breakfast at the White House, two key lawmakers urged Bush to consider nominating someone other than a judge. Democrats floated the names of three Hispanic judges, but advocates on both the right and left said they might be too moderate for the president’s liking.

Bush even heard – all the way from South Africa – from Laura Bush, who said she’d like to see him replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor with a woman.

Through it all, Bush gave no clues about whom he might be considering.

“Closer than I was yesterday” was all he would say about how near he was to making his first pick for the nation’s high court.

His White House meeting was attended by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn; Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.; Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee; and Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, ranking Democrat on the committee. Vice President Dick Cheney and White House Chief of Staff Andy Card also attended.

Reid told Bush he wanted the president to share the names of his candidates so senators could evaluate them.

The Democrat said he didn’t want to “wake up in the morning and see a name in the paper.” The president’s process of consultation should continue, he said.

“If the president sends us a consensus nominee, the Senate will confirm them easily,” Reid said. “If he sends us a divisive nominee, we will use all procedural tools at our disposal to protect the American people.”

The meeting was intended to reinforce White House contentions that Bush was consulting widely in filling the first Supreme Court vacancy in 11 years. Democrats have complained bitterly for years that Bush has ignored their views on lower-court judicial nominations. The White House said it has solicited the views of more than 60 senators.

“Senator Frist came to the Senate floor and said it is unprecedented what the president has done,” Reid said about the consultation. “That is a bunch of flimflam,” he said, adding that presidents have often consulted with leading senators about Supreme Court nominees.