The next one will be the big fight...and I don't expect anything resembling "mainstream" coming from Bush. Batten down the hatches.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said he will ask President George W. Bush on Wednesday that his second nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court be "mainstream, not extreme."
With the court's balance of power likely at stake, Reid said he will make his case at a White House breakfast meeting with Bush and fellow Senate leaders.
The president's first Supreme Court nominee, John Roberts, appears headed toward Senate confirmation next week as the nation's 17th chief justice. Attention now is beginning to focus on who Bush may offer as his second nominee. That person would likely face a tougher fight.
Easing Roberts' path toward confirmation is the belief he would not shift the balance of power on the nine-member court. He would succeed the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who had been the court's conservative anchor for three decades.
A tougher fight is expected over Bush's next nominee, who would replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a moderate conservative who has been the swing vote on the often bitterly divided court.
On Tuesday, Reid said there was no doubt that Roberts would be confirmed but that he would vote against the 50-year-old conservative.
Reid said while Roberts, a federal appeals judge the past two years, is a smart man, "I'm not too sure if his heart is as big as his head."
As for Bush's pending nominee, Reid said, "We want him to give us a candidate who is mainstream, not extreme."
"A number of candidates who have been talked about are extreme," Reid said.
Reid did not name names but said he would find as problematic any of the 10 federal appeals court nominees who Democrats blocked during Bush's first term.
Give 'em hell, Harry.