Ralph Reed weighs in on the news that Justice John Paul Stevens is stepping down from the Supreme Court to declare that it will help Republicans (because, in Reed’s world, everything is always awesome from Republicans) … but mostly it’s an opportunity to peddle his forthcoming “political thriller”:
Stevens made clear in earlier interviews with the Washington Post and the New York Times he would retire while Barack Obama was president. Today’s announcement ups the ante: he is purposely quitting while Democrats still have a 59-seat majority in the U.S. Senate, thereby hoping to make the confirmation of a dedicated liberal nominee smoother.
Stevens may have been too cute by half. It is a safe assumption that Obama will tack left on this nominee to energize his base and maximize the value of the vacancy. And by dropping the battle over choosing his successor before the November elections—while Democrats are on defense and Barack Obama’s job approval rating has plummeted to 44 percent in the most recent CBS News poll—Stevens may have assured this vacancy further energizes conservatives at the grassroots to elect a Republican Congress.
The political ramifications of a Supreme Court pick can be epochal and this battle will be hard-fought. Think Robert Bork, or Health Care 2.0. I recently turned in the manuscript of my next political thriller, which is entitled “The Confirmation,” scheduled for publication in August. The book recounts the most brutal, no-holds-barred confirmation battle of a Supreme Court Justice in U.S. history. Will life imitate fiction? I suspect it just might.
His book even has it’s own trailer:
How exciting!
