WaPo: Cheney & SCOTUS Nominees - VP "Steered The Selection Committee"

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/sidebars/taking_on_the_supreme_court_ca/index.html

Taking on the Supreme Court Case
When it came to vetting potential nominees, the vice president steered the selection committee.

In May 2005, a small group of the president's senior advisers gathered to weigh a historic choice: who should succeed an ailing William H. Rehnquist as chief justice of the United States.

The meeting wasn't held at the White House or the Justice Department. And the highest-ranking official in the room wasn't the attorney general, the White House chief of staff, the White House counsel or the president's chief political adviser, although they were all there.

It was Vice President Cheney, and it was to an unpretentious room off the vice president's quarters that potential candidates were summoned for interviews.

The handful of candidates who survived a grilling of more than two hours by the Cheney-led selection committee would go on to what one participant described as a much shorter and "far more relaxed" interview with the president. President Bush seemed more interested in personal matters than in case law. By contrast, Cheney pressed for information that would shed light on the candidates' legal philosophies, demonstrating a sophisticated knowledge of doctrine and, without crossing the line by asking about specific cases, leaving a clear impression of the constitutional issue he considered paramount.

"I think one of the reasons that this is a primary interest of Cheney's is 9/11," the participant said. "Questions about every aspect of the government's war on terrorism could come before the courts."

- snip -

All five finalists were white. All but one were men. What they shared were clear records of support for the positions most important to Cheney.

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I can only come up with one thing:




















cheney, * & the rest planned and carried out the 9-11 attacks. Imagine that? What in the hell would happen then???
Call this bullshit if you want, but my very first reaction on 9-11 (after the shock and sadness) was, that * had something to do with this. I still think the same thing, right or wrong. It would be the one thing, even with the courts set up for *, that would take him & the rest DOWN.