Rove's Discussions with Dobson

The Constitution calls for Supreme Court Justices to be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. In Bush World there is a different procedure as the support of James Dobson is more important. Knight Ridder reports on the conversations between Karl Rove and James Dobson:

In a private conversation designed to garner support for the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, White House aide Karl Rove told a key conservative Christian leader that the Texas lawyer had taken positions that “would not be supportive of abortion.”

The unusual contact between Rove and James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, a Colorado evangelical group staunchly opposed to abortion, came two days before President Bush announced Miers’ nomination.

To paraphrase Arnold Vinick, Republican candidate for President on last week’s episode of The West Wing, if Dobson wants a say in Supreme Court nominees, he should run for the Senate. Vinick, played by Alan Alda, also noted how damaging groups similar to Focus on the Family have been to the Republican Party.