CNN just conducted a live interview with Bill Clinton, who had a few important words of advice for President Bush on how to go about picking a Supreme Court Justice. President Clinton obviously understands that the chief executive of the United States has the sole constitutional responsibility of nominating Supreme Court Justices. (Remember, Clinton’s picks were Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.)
Here were Clinton’s prominent pieces of advice.
1. Democrats will launch political attacks on anyone President Bush nominates:
“[T]he people that are your political opponents will politicize anybody you appoint anyway.”
(Note: this describes the behavior only of Democrats, inasmuch as Senate Republicans kindly and quickly confirmed Ginsburg, the former general counsel of the ACLU.)
2. Choose someone whose judicial philosophy is consistent with yours:
“There’s no substitute for appointing someone [who] has convictions that are consistent with yours.”
(He also said that a nominee should be able to “think” and should have “a heart as well as a mind,” but let’s assume that one’s not even being disputed by the liberals in his own Party.)