On the question of who will replace John Paul Stevens:
The timing is crucial. This is an election year and I can now see a delegation of the endangered Senate Democrats walking into the Oval Office — Harry Reid, Arlen Specter, Michael Bennet of Colorado, Blanche Lincoln — saying: Please, Mr. President, we’re hanging by a thread after health care and the stimulus. With all that happened in the last month to your agenda which we supported, don’t hit with us Diane Wood, a left ideologue who believes not only in the left-wing causes but believes that the role of the court is to impose itself on issues like abortion or gay marriage.
On Bart Stupak’s retirement:
The guy’s political epitaph will read “A good man who played over his head.” He held out and then he got squeezed by the president and the speaker. He caved. And the worst part of it was that he pretended that the instrument of surrender he signed was a victory. It’s a sad ending to a long career.