Uniter, not a divider

Maybe George W. Bush wants to be a uniter, not a divider, after all. During the campaigns, he pointed to Scalia as the type of Associate Justice who he would seek to appoint. Yet, even Scalia's staunchest supporters would admit that he is acerbic, and is not shy about ridiculing publicly other Justices who embrace legal positions with which he disagrees. Roberts seems cut more from the mold of Rehnquist, Robert's mentor and former boss.

Link.

A senior White House official stressed yesterday that the choice reflected a personal connection that Bush made with Roberts during the vetting process.

''He really hit it off with Roberts," the official said. ''As you know, the president is a person of intuition and he saw in [Roberts] not only a brilliant legal mind but a terrific judicial temperament. This guy is a thinker. He's not a polarizer."

I also wonder if one of the reasons that Rehnquist opted not to retire is because he thought that there was a decent chance that Roberts would be picked to replace O'Connor and Rehnquist didn't want to pass up the possibility of serving at least one term with Roberts. Which raises a question: Has a former Supreme Court clerk ever been elevated to the high court while his former boss is still on the bench? Sounds like history to me.