SALON

Tuesday, Jun 7, 2005 3:52 PM UTC

Say it isn’t so

Is Bush eyeing John "They Shoot Judges, Don't They?" Cornyn for a seat on the Supreme Court?

By

Topics: Supreme Court, War Room, John Cornyn, R-Texas,

We’ve all heard some of the names on George W. Bush’s Supreme Court short list. There’s J. Michael Luttig and J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Michael McConnell of the 10th Circuit, John Roberts Jr. of the District of Columbia Circuit, Emilio Garza of the Fifth Circuit and a handful of other judges from hither and yon.

Then there’s this rather novel candidate: Texas Sen. John Cornyn. Legal Times mentioned Cornyn as a possible contender last week, and the Houston Chronicle picks up the story today. A Cornyn aide says his boss “is very happy being a senator” but wouldn’t rule out the possibility of serving on the Supreme Court someday.

It’s the rest of us who ought to be ruling it out.

It was Cornyn, after all, who wondered recently whether the recent spate of violence against judges and their families might be the fault not of crazed criminals but rather of an out-of-control judiciary. “I don’t know if there is a cause-and-effect connection,” Cornyn said in April, “but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters, on some occasions, where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in, engage in violence. Certainly without any justification, but a concern that I have.”

It is Cornyn who, whenever the occasion requires it, will say anything — regardless of its truth or falsity — to advance the agenda of George W. Bush and the religious right. During the “nuclear option” debate, Cornyn was frequently on the Senate floor, declaring — entirely falsely, as it turns out — that filibusters of judicial nominees were somehow “unprecedented.” And it was Cornyn who took to the Senate floor back in February to express his befuddlement over how anyone could be opposed to the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general and to criticize Democrats — a “political insurgency” — for not helping Republicans usher in a “new beginning” of bi-partisanship.

When Senate moderates stuck a deal last month to avert the nuclear option, Cornyn predicted that it might be short lived. If Bush nominates Cornyn to the Supreme Court, he may well be right.

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog. More Tim Grieve.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations