Leahy and Specter suggest Obama look beyond the "monastery" of the courts for Souter replacement.

[jefferson_dem]

Obama urged to look beyond courts

Two top senators – Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and a former chairman of the committee, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) – said Sunday that President Barack Obama should look beyond the “monastery” of the courts when he chooses a successor to Justice David Souter.

Among the non-judges who have been suggested are Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Washington lawyer Robert Barnett.

Leahy told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week”: “I would like to see more people from outside the judicial monastery – somebody who’s had some real-life experience, not just as a judge … an insulated life.”

Specter said on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “I would hope that he would look beyond the circuit courts of appeals, which now populate the Supreme Court, and pick someone with greater world experience and diversity.”

Moderator David Gregory pressed Specter on whether he was saying Obama should not pick a judge, but a politician or a leader from another discipline in life.

“Maybe not a politicians,” Specter said. “Maybe a statesman, or stateswoman. But all of the justices now have been on the circuit courts of appeal. So they have lives an experiences which are all very similar, and we live in a very diverse country, with a lot of different interests.”

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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22027.html

[rpannier]

1. I'm available

I can start whenever they want me too

[vaberella]

2. Apply, I'm serious.n/t

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Someone with a background like Thurgood Marshall, or...

since we have the precedent of Taft as Chief Justice, have wingnut heads explode by putting Bill Clinton on the list.

(No fear of Clinton taking the job-- it would kill him to be stuck in one place for nine months.)

Treasonous the Wiseass

[AllentownJake]

5. Bill wouldn't be able to take having his decisions criticized

Without holding a Press conference to tell the people criticizing him they were wrong...and assholes.

[AllentownJake]

4. Earl Warren was a great Justice