Supreme Court Nomination Expected Today
Bump and Update (by TChris): President Bush will announce the nominee in a live telecast tonight, at 9:00 Eastern time.
Update: WaPo says the White House will announce Bush's Supreme Court nominee today.
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Scott McClellan today:
"The president is closer today than he was yesterday on naming a nominee."
Speculation is centering on 5th Circuit Justice Edith Clement.
White House officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about the process, said Bush's timetable appears to have been accelerated and that a choice could come as early as Tuesday. They said Clement is a leading candidate, but cautioned that the president had not made a final decision and that there were other prospects still in the mix.
Known as a conservative and a strict constructionist in legal circles, Clement has eased fears among some abortion-rights advocates. She has stated that the Supreme Court "has clearly held that the right to privacy guaranteed by the Constitution includes the right to have an abortion" and that "the law is settled in that regard."
Some good news: All the finalists are judges, which means no need to fret about Sen. John Cornyn, Fred Thompson, Alberto Gonzales - for this particular vacancy.
Even better news: Also missing from the final list: former Solictor General Ted Olson.
Update: Via Romanesko: USA Today and Bloggers On Your Mark
Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism says that it will be up to "traditional media with the largest resources to knock down bad stuff that the bloggers put out" about whomever President Bush nominates. He tells Peter Johnson: "The media world is almost unrecognizable from what it was 11 years ago. All the rules of the road are different. We were driving 1950s Chevys compared to what governs the road now."
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