Speaking of the Court

In his Sunday article in the New York Times, Pulitzer prize winning reporter and author Ron Suskind, who also wrote for the Wall Street Journal, reported on a rally of sorts Bush had in September. Bush was meeting with the RNC Regents, a group of ardent supporters. At that meeting, in addition to saying he would come out strong to privatize Social Security after the election, Bush talked about the Supreme Court appointments he anticipates. He said he anticipates he'll have the opportunity to make 4 appointments in his second term.

Here's what I find chilling. Bush said he will make one of the 4 Supreme Court appointments shortly after being inaugurated.

How could he know that unless he has spoken with a Supreme Court Justice who told him? One of the Justices had to have told Bush that he will retire shortly after the inauguration if Bush is re-elected. We know Justices are friendly with the President and Vice President. Remember Cheney, Scalia, and the ducks? It bothers me that a Justice would do this. I can understand that a Justice might want to retire. I can understand that a Justice might not want to retire right before a presidential election to help make sure that the election doesn't turn into a debate on nothing but abortion. But I do not condone a Justice making a private announcement to one of the candidates. Justices are supposed to be above politics. By telling Bush, one of the Justices (and my money is on Rehnquist) took sides in a blatantly political way. Why would this conversation happen? Why would the justice tell this to Bush? There is no legitimate reason. Well, there are, but all the legitimate reasons would require the justice to also tell Kerry. That didn't happen.