The President Could Avoid a Train Wreck on This One

President Bush may try to have it both ways in appointing Sandra Day O'Connor's replacement on the US Supreme Court: He may strive to both play to his base and nominate a moderate, or at least, one acceptable to moderates in the Senate.

He could do that by nominating a senator, someone trusted by his or her colleagues, even if of more conservative bent.

The Senate's Democratic leader, Harry Reid, floated the names of three Republican senators recently, including that of Mike DeWine from Ohio, who he deemed acceptable to Democrats.

And while some GOPers may not like DeWine's participation in the Gang of Fourteen, he is both conservative and an experienced lawyer and prosecutor.

Another name the President could send up that would please everybody, I think, is Orrin Hatch.

The President, if he has any desire to establish a legacy that will, at the least, help secure the election of a Republican successor, has got to start to make some deals. (A Republican successor, by the way, will almost ensure a Republican Supreme Court for decades to come.) He needs to make a deal on Social Security, for example. He's got to develop some sort of new consensus on the war in Iraq. (That, after all, is why he delivered the major speech on Iraq of this past week.)

The President, at this point, may decide that he can ill-afford to shake another hornet's nest.

His religious right base isn't going anywhere, he may calculate. He can afford to take them a bit for granted by not nominating one of their preferred number, but someone who will be acceptable to them.

Whether the President will see this or act on it, I can't say, of course: He hasn't called me yet to indicate his intentions or ask for my advice.