Clinton's advice for Supreme Court nominations

(H/T: KvM)

President Clinton was recently being interviewed and asked about giving advice to Bush.

Watch a clip here.

The transcript of the advice:

What's your advice in choosing supreme court justices? What type of person?

CLINTON:I would say that he should pick someone -- he'll want to pick someone who may be quite a bit more conservative than I would pick. Because he's probably the most conservative president we've had since the 1920s.

OK, That's not true. Reagan was more conservative. The jury is still out on if G.W. Bush is more conservative than JFK. Back to Clinton's advice.

I would say pick someone who is broad-minded and can think and has a heart as well as a mind. Because you can never predict what decisions the supreme court's going to have to face. And if you get too political or -- you're liable to be disappointed anyway. Because the issues you think should dominate your selection may not be the issued that dominate the court's calendar within 3 year, much less 5, 10, or 20 years. I urge him to think about somebody he will be really proud to have appointed 10 or 15 years from now. I went through this twice.

And aside from Nixon's appointment of Stevens, Clinton got the 2 most liberal Justices currently sitting on the Court.

There are always lots of good qualified people. And the people that are your political opponents will politicize anybody you appoint anyway. So you need to stay out of that. I think he ought to do something, you know, when he goes to bed tonight, he'll sleep well, he'll feel good.

Good advice, but he goes on and nails it again.

He has right to do whatever he wants, despite all the advice. Absolutely, he does. He's got practical considerations he has to face. Can he get a person confirmed. There is an interesting article today about the Attorney General, Mr. Gonzales, and whether he would have to recuse from too many cases because since 1974 there's been a law on the books that a Supreme Court Justice has to recuse in cases if he or she was a member of the cabinet or had some other high-ranking job before they went in the Court.

Do you think the Democrats will take the advice of their Messiah? I doubt it, even though he is right.

President Bush, please, please appoint someone to the right of Scalia. Please roll your sleeves up and fight like hell against the hate machine that is the Senate Democrat Caucus. Fight for what you believe is right, not what the media or the DNC tells you is your duty.