Well, how much deference is the president owed in judicial appointments?
A fair amount. And as a former executive, the confirmation process in Indiana works a little differently, but as a former executive with one objective, I had first crack for the prerogatives of the president. But as I said, that’s why I started the way I started today. When he ran for office, [Bush] essentially gave a wink and a nod to the most extreme elements in his own party: “You’ll be happier with the people I’m going to pick.” It wasn’t [that] he was saying, “Hey, I’m going to pick folks are going to go right down the middle.” I mean, he was sort of, I think, giving an indication that he intended to pick people who had an ideological agenda, and that raised the bar in my mind. Well, let me ask it this way, once the Gang of 14 did their compromise last spring, part of that deal essentially was that the Senate would clear the runway for Dennis Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor. There was no filibuster of them because it was clear that filibusters would not — there was
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