MSNBC: Supreme Court Justice Stevens Retiring

[Kilmer17]

Yes, the days of a GOP POTUS nominating a liberal Justice are now long gone (I cant remember that last time a DEM nominated a conservative FWIW). Now, they will all be judged on the political leaning and then judged on their actual qualifications for the robe.

[DjTj]

This was expected after the dems took over congress back in 2006, when I predicted that to ensure the liberal agenda to continue after America comes to their senses and try to prevent a liberal Congress from further damaging the nation, Activist liberal judges will be in place.

Interestingly, Obama has been much slower at appointing judges than Bush.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/15/nation/la-na-obama-judges15-2010mar15

I'm betting they will shoot for the moon and think of nominating the Asian lawyer who believes the nation should dole out reparations.

Goodwin Liu might actually provide great cover for Elena Kagan. The Republicans will use all their energy fighting Liu's nomination to the Ninth Circuit (and he'll likely be confirmed anyways, since conservative lawyers like Ken Starr and John Yoo have come out in support of him). When Obama then nominates Kagan for the Supreme Court, they will have to concede that she is much more moderate than Liu.

That the perfect candidate is someone who cannot be tied with a Party by anything that is public, but who has several Party members who will swear to his absolute loyalty, in private.

Almost all the Justices can be tied to a political party by something public. Thomas worked in the Reagan administration. Ginsburg was the top lawyer for the ACLU. Alito was a U.S. Attorney in the Reagan and Bush administrations, and Roberts was in the Bush Justice Department.

...and the Supreme Court is actually notoriously unreliable on many political issues. Stevens is a great example of that, since he was appointed by Gerald Ford but drifted leftward over the years.