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The Morning Grind / DayAhead |
Arafat, Rehnquist and Scott Peterson
By John Mercurio
CNN Political Unit
 |  People in the news: Yasser Arafat, William Rehnquist and Scott Peterson. |
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 VIDEO |
 CNN's Tom Foreman on the president and court appointments.
 CNN's Jeff Greenfield on the role of moral beliefs in the vote.
 CNN's Ed Lavandera on Hispanic voters and President Bush.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- You know life has returned to, uh, normal when one of the day's top news stories is Scott Peterson.
Sad but true, we'll spend more time waiting for the Peterson verdict today than we will watching the latest response ad from Camp Kerry, most of whose folks have closed up shop and forwarded "new contact info" to reporters and friends. Godspeed, Dems.
Also sad but true, of course, are the two other stories driving today's headlines -- namely, the declining health of two of the world's most powerful political figures, neither of whom ever expected to find his name placed so close to the other -- Yasser Arafat and William Rehnquist.
Arafat remains in a Paris hospital. His condition continues to be critical.
Rehnquist, 80, remained at home for much of this week where he's receiving chemotherapy and radiation for thyroid cancer. Neither Rehnquist nor his doctors have revealed details about the extent of his illness. But the chief justice has been too sick to return to work at the high court, and medical experts said he likely has the most serious form of the disease.
During his post-election, pre-Camp David news conference yesterday in the capital, President Bush dodged questions about the Supreme Court and Rehnquist. "There is no vacancy on the Supreme Court," he told reporters. "I'll deal with a vacancy when there is one."
He reiterated that, whenever an opening does come, he would select someone "who knows the difference between personal opinion and strict interpretation of the law." Bush told reporters to look at his record of appointments, saying it shows he selects "well-qualified people who know the law, who represent a judicial temperament that I agree with and who are qualified to hold the bench."
John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley and a former Justice Department official under Bush, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today that the average Supreme Court retirement age over the past century was 71, after 14 years of service. Under that formula, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 71, Antonin Scalia, 68, and Anthony Kennedy, 68, also would be candidates for retirement during Bush's next four years, according to the Atlanta paper.
There hasn't been a vacancy on the high court in 10 years, the longest period without turnover since the early 1800s.
Specter revises comments
Meanwhile, an update to comments that Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, made Wednesday at a post-election news conference in Philadelphia. Specter, who's in line to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee after winning a tough primary this year that enjoyed White House backing, said Bush shouldn't consider a three-point victory a "mandate" and appeared to warn him against sending anti-abortion court nominees.
Specter's comments sparked outrage from religious conservative groups, including the Family Research Council, which called his remarks "the height of arrogance and ingratitude" and urged conservatives to derail his bid to become Judiciary Committee chairman.
"Our pro-life president and his colleagues in the Senate must not allow Sen. Specter to determine the makeup of our courts. Sen. Specter should not become the next Judiciary Committee chairman," the group said.
Specter, in full damage-control mode, backpedaled. "Contrary to press accounts, I did not warn the president about anything" and would "never apply any litmus test" on abortion, Specter said in a statement on his Senate Web site. "I expect to support his nominees," he later told The Washington Post.
Also today, sad news from the Rev. Al Sharpton. The New York Daily News reports that Sharpton and his wife, Kathy, are splitting up after 24 years of marriage. The couple will announce the separation today.
"It's entirely amicable," a Sharpton spokeswoman told the News. "They are on the best of terms. But at this point, their daughters are grown, and they want to pursue their separate interests."
