And I think there are folks in the White House ready to receive that pitch, |
At the end of the day, the bulk of us are with the president and with the leadership, but that's because we don't have any other place to go. We suppose they're doing the best they can, but we're all very unhappy. |
Conservative leaders are again worried that the president's delay (in making his second nomination to the court) is intended to give the White House time to build support for Alberto Gonzales and to distance the selection from Katrina. |
Conservatives want someone with a clear, written record. The Roberts hearing has been superb as a technical, tactical matter, but it's left some people in despair and just clamoring for someone with a written record. The left keeps asking, 'What does the right know that we don't know?' Well the truth of the matter is, we don't know anything. We're all being asked to take a leap of faith. |
Delay always harms a nominee. That's the No. 1 rule of nominations, but what they could do in a week when most people are on recess, I'm not so sure. |
I do think they got the message. |
I think the president is going to have to nominate a woman or Hispanic or an African American, and that probably the situation (with Hurricane Katrina) is such that an elevation makes good sense now. |
If he did that, he would reduce the numbers of the people who continue to support him. |
No conservative leader supports Al Gonzales, and those who say they do are not telling the truth but are afraid of losing White House access, or promised help with fund raising. |
One of the great ironies of this nomination is that it requires the White House machine to stop and spin in the opposite direction than they did in Roberts. |
Right now the base is completely fractured and people are very concerned about the impact on the 2006 elections. The troubling thing is that the Supreme Court was the gold ring and the president's thinking appears indiscernible, unless you're willing to take it as a matter of faith. |
Roberts has soaked up the white male seat. |
She is not one of the score of brilliant and tested ... potential nominees that the president might have nominated. |
sinking even lower in the polls. |
The calls to withdraw are serious, and they're going to increase, ... The more that we heard from the nomination's defenders, the more people became convinced that there was no substance in the nomination and that her friends were her worst enemies. |