Roberts is old news

The question is, who's next.

According to news accounts, Bush interviewed five candidates over the weekend. Roberts, Wilkinson, Luttig, Edith Clement, and Edith Jones. Three premier jurists, two women, and no hispanics. Roberts got the nod, of course. Are the other four in the running for the next retirement? Bush may feel that he can only afford one white male, and Luttig and Wilkinson missed their best shot. On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised that Bush ignored PC orthodoxy with this pick and may do so again. In any case Luttig and Wilkinson probably head the white male non-Senator category for the future. If Bush was sincerely interviewing Clement and Jones then they correspondingly probably head the female category. It is possible that Bush had already decided to name one of the men and had the Ediths along for show. If so, they may not actually head the female category.

The third category is hispanic and the question is what happened to Garza? If Garza's confirmation is at issue , it would be because he has explicitly criticized Roe in a concurrence applying Roe. Edith Jones has done the same, however and was still a finalist. I suspect that Bush wants to appoint Gonzalez to the Court, but will do so only when one of the liberal justices retires and if Rhenquist is replaced by someone the "base" trusts. If Rhenquist and Stevens go together, I think Bush will go with Gonzalez as CJ and Edith Jones as AJ. If Rhenquist goes next alone, I think it's Roberts as CJ and one of the Ediths as AJ. If Stevens goes first Bush will go Gonzo unless he thinks the "base" will feel betrayed, in which case he chooses Edith Clement.