His political clout has never been lower. |
President Bush was dealt a good hand that included 55 Republican senators. |
The O'Connor retirement was more important. Replacing Rehnquist with Rehnquist junior means that the court runs in place. |
The same holds for conservative precedents. O'Connor had been critical of Roe, but when she had a potential vote to overturn it, she just partially limited it. |
There are more people who fit into the class of elderly. The more people in the group, the more cases you'll have. The problem is a lot of bad age-discrimination cases ruin it for the rest of them. You do see a number of people claiming age discrimination with little merit. It sours the courts on age-discrimination cases. |
There is an argument that it would be appropriate now. But I doubt that will happen. |
There's always the suspicion that what we don't see contains the bombshells. |
Typically, the goal is to avoid someone as ideological as [Earl] Warren or as power-hungry and pretentious as [Warren] Burger. Roberts' relatively mild-mannered demeanor may serve him well. |