President Bush is meeting with Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the committee; Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.; and Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada to talk about the Supreme Court vacancy:
While the president has held telephone conversations with the four senators before, Bush's breakfast with the four Tuesday is their first meeting in person about the vacancy.
"The president is not prejudging anything," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Monday, adding that Bush and his advisers have reached out to more than 60 senators. "He wants to hear what their views are and hear what they have to say as we move forward on a Supreme Court nominee."
According to the Associated Press, the Democratic senators don't sound truly appreciative of the President's outreach, saying the onus is on the president to smooth the way for a nominee by alerting Democrats to his thinking:
Leahy said. "Meaningful consultation is more than checking off a box. It means a real dialogue that can help the president find a good nominee who could have overwhelming bipartisan support."
Reid said several senators had suggested names to the White House, but it's important that Bush share names too.
Senator Frist urged his Democratic colleagues to "keep overzealous outside interest groups at bay and not allow them to turn this nomination process into a circus:"
We should work toward a dignified hearing process that allows opportunity for fair questioning but moves toward confirmation -- not confrontation.
I'm afraid it's too late for that given the attitude of New York's Senator Schumer. According to the New York Post, Schumer was overheard saying into his cellphone on a Washington-New York Amtrak trip:
We are contemplating how we are going to go to war over this.
The senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on the courts, who is also chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, opted for confrontation even before there is a nomination.
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