You could always try a movement to "draft" someone to be a Supreme Court justice. At least that's the idea of the people who have started the Draft Prado movement, which is designed to convince Bush to nominate Judge Edward C. Prado of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to the next Supreme Court vacancy. The backers of the site make a good case: Prado was a Reagan appointee to the U.S. District Court who was unanimously confirmed by the Senate when he was nominated to the Fifth Circuit by Bush in 2003. He is a Texan and so is well known to Bush. And he is at least tolerated by liberals -- TalkLeft said Prado is the most acceptable candidate on the Bush Supreme Court short list.
And of course race is an issue. As a Latino, Prado would satisfy the singleminded desire of the various "Hispanic" organizations to get someone on the high court. I continue to believe that Clinton's second biggest mistake, topped only by not intervening in Rwanda, was appointing Breyer to the Supreme Court instead of José Cabranes; if Cabranes were on the Court, Bush would have had much less of an opportunity to make mischief with his Latino appointments at all levels.
All of this support for Prado as a consensus choice, of course, means there is virtually no chance Bush will appoint him. (For one thing, he is too old to sit on the court for decades; the right wing will want another young Clarence Thomas-type candidate.) I expect Bush will repeat Clinton's political mistake, believing (as Clinton probably did) that he will get more opportunities to appoint the much-awaited First Hispanic Supreme Court Justice. Maybe he will, but Supreme Court Justices are notoriously hard to predict, especially when it comes to the question of their own retirement.
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