Sean Rushton Quotations

The people who would know have not been talking to anybody but each other. The message broadcast by the White House up to this point has just been to focus on an orderly process for Roberts.

Nothing better exemplifies the chasm of difference between how the left and the right think about the courts. The wisdom we want is the wisdom to defend the structure of our system for everyone. What they're really saying is that the judge should bend or break the law in order to achieve a favorable short-term result.

I'd imagine it will be similar to last time. The president will say: 'What do you want us to know?' 'Are there any names you'd like to suggest?' or 'Do you especially oppose anyone?' But I don't think the president is going to tip his hand.

It certainly sounds as if he's getting pulled into Chuck Schumer's demands for unprecedented specificity in case law. To discuss recent cases and controversies and to have the Senate attempt to reject or confirm nominees based on a checklist of how they would rule on individual cases is clearly an attack on the judiciary's independence.

It is a rare instance of the base being displeased with a major decision of this president.

Janice Brown ... is admired like no other among conservatives, and that counts, I'd love to have that fight.

I think MoveOn sensed a 'NARAL moment' was upon them,

We don't tell the White House who they should consider, but our organization is close to the White House. Historically, we have been a source of strategic advice to the White House in defending it's nominees.

The president has got 55 votes and probably a couple of Democratic votes as well. He has a lot of leeway here.

We're attempting to drive a wedge between red state senators and liberal interest groups.

This shows the degree to which liberal Hollywood is financially supporting the leading groups attacking the president's court nominees.

a problem for the liberal groups and senators who want to turn this into a spectacle. . . . When the media have other serious things to focus their attention on, they tend to spend less time and less ink on the tit-for-tat, he said/she said elements that frequently accompany a confirmation hearing.

The more shrill and hysterical they get, the more they isolate themselves.

It is sickening that some in Washington would politicize a national tragedy.

Steve understands the campaign-like nature of current judicial confirmations, and that the day-to-day pushback and defining the nominee can make all the difference between success and failure.

not to bring a knife to a gunfight.

They want him to all but commit to vote in certain ways, and when he won't answer those questions, they'll claim he's not being forthcoming and that they have no choice but to vote against him.

Once a nominee starts taking strong public positions, the cat is out of the bag.

I'm not sure that we really knew anything new about Michael Luttig from this case,

If the left wants to argue that the president needs to be weaker when it comes to protecting this country from terrorist cells, I think that's the kind of debate where we probably won't have to say a whole lot to undercut their argument.

The left is doing its predictable show of hysterical scare-mongering.