Bush has nominated Samuel Alito to the supreme court. Many thought Alito would have been the nominee to replace Rehnquist, but that went to John Roberts. Various individuals appearing on Fox News yesterday threw Alito’s name out there, expecting him to be the new nominee to replace Sandra Day O’Conner. They liked comparing him to John Roberts.
Alito is a federal judge in New Jersey and a well established conservative. Too conservative for some probably. His stances on various issues are more well known than Miers were, hopefully he’ll have an easier ride than Harriet Miers had.
I expect he won’t have many troubles along the path to the SCOTUS. Could be a little sluggish in the Senate, but what isn’t? Overall, I’m happy with Alito as the new nominee.
Outside the Beltway has some early takes on Alito. California Conservative says “Confirm Judge Alito.” Iowa Voice “can live with this”, although he’d rather see Janice Rogers Brown be the nominee. The Political Teen was hoping for a Brown nomination too. Of course, Stop the ACLU is pleased because Alito has ruled against the ACLU in the past.
Harry Reid’s feelings must have really gotten hurt. Could he be any more of a baby? I don’t feel I need an apology Harry. Bush didn’t do anything to me or anyone else, why should he apologize for the actions of others? True, he’s got control over who’s in what positions, but he has no control over their individual actions once they’re there.
An apology is fine. Should Bush apologize, I won’t hold it against him. Harry Reid thinks of Bush as a a god-like figure, otherwise he wouldn’t want an apology from Bush for actions of those under him.
Reid said Bush should pledge not to pardon I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Cheney’s chief of staff who was indicted Friday on five charges relating to statements he made to the FBI and a grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.
He took aim at Rove, whose actions were probed by Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald. Rove is reportedly still under investigation.
“I think Karl Rove should step down,” Reid said about the White House deputy chief of staff. “Here is a man who the president said if he was involved, if anyone in the administration was involved, out they would go. Anybody who is involved in this, they’re gone.”
What a damn idiot. It’s a witch-hunt. Only the witch is specifically Karl Rove. Dems obviously aren’t satisfied with Libby being indicted, they don’t even acknowledge that Libby was the one that was indicted, not Rove. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure they’re perfectly happy Libby got indicted, it’s just that he wasn’t their most prized target.
PunditGuy has a whole bunch of thoughts and other commentary from various publications.
I wrote a few days ago about Cindy Sheehan preparing to tie herself to a fence once the 2000th soldier in Iraq had died. Well, didn’t go exactly as she planned it would seem. The Political Pitbull has some pictures of lonely Cindy just sitting there playin with her blackberry. Sure doesn’t look like her 2000 deaths party was much of a success…
The hippies in San Fran seem to have had better success, if nothing else they had a good time. Really, go look at them. It looks like the set of a Cheech and Chong movie. Or as Ace puts it, “a tailgate party outside a fucking Phish concert.”
The Indepundit has a link to The Everlasting Phelps, who asks if you can tell the difference between these hippies in San Fran and partying White Sox fans. I sure can’t, there’s something seriously wrong there.
The NYT is reporting that Karl Rove, Bush’s deputy chief of staff and a senior advisor, won’t be indicted in the Plame case. He will remain under investigation though, lucky him.
Sooter Libby Jr., Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, will be indicted on charges of “making false statements to the grand jury in the C.I.A. leak inquiry”.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 – Lawyers in the C.I.A. leak case said Thursday that they expected I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, to be indicted on Friday, charged with making false statements to the grand jury.
Karl Rove, President Bush’s senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, will not be charged on Friday, but will remain under investigation, people briefed officially about the case said. As a result, they said, the special counsel in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, was likely to extend the term of the federal grand jury beyond its scheduled expiration on Friday.
As rumors coursed through the capital, Mr. Fitzgerald gave no public signal of how he intended to proceed, further intensifying the anxiety that has gripped the White House and left partisans on both sides of the political aisle holding their breath.
Being indicted doesn’t mean guilty. Basically, the prosecutors feel they’ve got enough on Libby to link him to crimes he’s suspected of commiting. They just need more time before they’re confident enough in their evidence to indict Rove.
None of this is even known to be 100% true yet. It sounds very plausible though, along with a few thousand other possibilities. I almost hope it goes down that way. I expect aggression and general outrage from left leaning bloggers if Rove does “get lucky” and comes out still under investigation. Should be a good time.
UPDATE 2:NBC News is confirming (along with WaPo now) that Libby will be indicted today while Rove will remain under investigation. h/t Real Teen.
James Joyner of OTB notices that most news sources are reporting on the non-indictment of Rove rather than the indicement of Libby. Sounds like the liberal media trying to ruffle feathers again. Conservative Cat gets serious about Plamegate and looks at how cats would make better military leaders than humans, sort of.
UPDATE 3: I caught Patrick Fitzgerald explaining all the charges in a press conference while I was at lunch. The Political Teen has the video. I think Fitzgerald did a nice job explaining everything and why Libby is being indicted. The Q&A was basically worthless, Fitzy didn’t really answer much. It’s not his fault reporters ask questions they already know the answers to though, or non-answers in this case.
And Bush is supposed to speak about the Libby indictment at 3:50 PM ET. So in like 2 minutes.
