Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

July 07, 2005

First Gonzales, Then Scalia

"While nobody inside the White House is talking names yet, those close to the efforts to line up nominees for the Supreme Court are suggesting with greater confidence that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales tops the list to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and that Justice Antonin Scalia will take over for ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist," Washington Whispers reports.

"That would leave a second court opening should Scalia take over as chief, as most expect, making it possible for President Bush to shift the court considerably more conservative, say insiders. (Bush could, for example, nominate Gonzales, a moderate conservative, to placate centrists, and then select more of a hard-liner to please his conservative base.)"

But the Washington Post notes "a fierce battle has erupted over Gonzales" pitting "the ideological priorities of social and religious conservatives" against "the aspiration of the Latino community to see the first Hispanic named to the high court."

Meanwhile, the New York Times notes that Democrats are "lionizing" Justice O'Connor as "part of a strategy intended to influence the outcome of this immediate nomination fight by trying to force Mr. Bush to stay in the center in making his selection."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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