GIBBS: Obama Wants SCOTUS Nominee With Long-Term Impact - "a diversity of experience, background"

[jefferson_dem]

Obama Wants Supreme Court Nominee With Long-Term Impact: Gibbs

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs stressed on Monday that while the president was not taking age into consideration when choosing his Supreme Court nominee, he was looking for someone who was "going to have a significant impact on the Court for quite some time."

"You have to assume whoever you pick is someone who will have great weight on the court for some time to come," he added.

In the daily press briefing, Gibbs was peppered repeatedly with questions about filling the forthcoming David Souter vacancy. He largely played coy, saying that he was not aware of contact between the White House and any specific candidates.

Gibbs did, however, provide a bit more detail as to how the search, vetting and nomination process would proceed. Before the briefing began, he noted that President Obama had spoken on the phone Monday with two Senators who will play important roles in the confirmation of his choice for the Supreme Court: newly minted Democrat Arlen Specter and former Judiciary Committee chair Orrin Hatch. The topic of conversation centered around "the upcoming pick," Gibbs said. Later he stressed that the President's preference was for someone with "a diversity of experience... a diversity in background."

"But again, I think the president is looking for somebody with a record of excellence, with a record of integrity, somebody who understand the rule of law, and somebody who understands how being a judge affects everyday lives."

<SNIP>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/04/obama-wants-supreme-court_n_195807.html

[applegrove]

1. Yippee. He's going for someone relatively young. Go Bama! Go Bama! Go Bama!

[4lbs]

2. All the members of the Judiciary Committee.

http://judiciary.senate.gov/about/members.cfm


Now that Specter has switched parties, he's no longer Ranking Member, and will be replaced by Jeff Sessions.

[HooptieWagon]

3. Looks like Grassley is the minority committee member to work on,

to vote the nominee out of committee.