Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Rebounding from the failed nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, President Bush is poised to select between two of the nation's leading conservative federal appeals-court judges — both with deep backgrounds in constitutional law — for what promises to be a bruising Senate confirmation battle. With an announcement expected today or Monday, administration officials have narrowed the focus to Judges Samuel Alito of New Jersey and Michael Luttig of Virginia, sources involved in the process said. Both have sterling legal qualifications and solid conservative credentials, and either would set off an explosive fight with Senate Democrats,...

McClellan said Rove told Dobson that "some individuals, when the list was longer, well into the double digits, had said that they preferred not to be considered" because they did not want to deal with "the ordeal of going through the confirmation process." But he said that had nothing to do with Bush's eventual nomination of Miers. "The president made a decision to nominate Harriet Miers. That was his choice, his only choice," he said. McClellan would give no names of candidates who withdrew but a conservative federal appeals court judge, Priscilla Owen of Texas, was reportedly one of them....

MIERS & LAST-MINUTE DROP-OUTS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A journalist friend just spoke with a top Texas lawyer who spoke with Priscilla Owen last week. He says that she "most emphatically" did not withdraw her name from consideration to the Court. If the White House spin is that Harriet Miers got the job because nobody else wanted it, it would seem that the White House is at a desperation point. Posted at 12:07 PM

Owen is out Sep 30 2005 12:42 PM By TimChapman According to a very reliable source close to the White House vetting process for the next nominee, Priscilla Owen has withdrawn her name from the process. With Owen out, conservatives have lost one of the better women on the short list.

With the White House signaling its intention to force a showdown over a handful of stalled judicial nominees, the question is no longer if it will happen but when, and with which nominees as first up. There are indications that Priscilla Owen will emerge as the public face of what's likely to be a wildly contentious battle that poses serious political risks for both parties. The White House has certainly shown unusual dedication to Owen's nomination. Since being chosen in 2001 as one of Bush's original slate of federal nominees, Owen, a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, has been...

The Supreme Court buzz earlier today was all about Alberto Gonzales (a trial balloon that I think failed badly once again), then Miguel Estrada, then Karen Williams. Now there's an AP story out that adds pretty much every attorney in the United States. Estrada was burned during the hearings and has little stomach for the process -- he was twice nominated and twice filibustered. He's a stealth candidate who is rumored to be pro-life. Estrada allegedly told associates of the National Organization of Women (NOW) at a luncheon in 1994 that he believes abortion to be murder -- but are we really...

Texan Priscilla Owen, who was the focal point of a bitter, four-year nomination battle for a federal appeals court, is emerging as a candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court as President Bush seeks a replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Owen, who sits on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is among at least a half-dozen Texans believed to be under consideration for the impending vacancy. Other candidates from the state are U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and several of Owen's 5th Circuit colleagues. ....... Although Owen has been on the appeals court less than four months, the...

Robert Novak reports Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) "has informed" Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) "that Federal Appeals Court Judge Priscilla Owen will be filibustered if President Bush names her to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. "Republican senators are divided on whether former Texas Supreme Court Justice Owen is vulnerable because she underwent a filibuster for the appellate seat and was confirmed under the compromise agreement. Frist is known to believe Owen can be confirmed in the face of a filibuster. "Republican Senate strategists believe Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is the only possible Bush nominee...

With Senate confirmation of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. as chief justice virtually assured, the struggle for the Supreme Court returns to replacing retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The belief in legal and political circles is that President Bush will name a conservative woman, and the front-runner is Federal Appellate Judge Priscilla Owen (5th Circuit, Austin, Texas). According to White House sources, Bush met secretly with Owen last week. While not decisive evidence, this was no mere get-acquainted session beginning a long exploration. The president knows and admires his fellow Texas Republican. The countervailing political pressure on Bush is to...

Judge Priscilla Owen U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Confirmed May 25, 2005 Since 1995, Justice Priscilla Owen has served as a distinguished and respected Justice on the Supreme Court of Texas. The American Bar Association unanimously rated Justice Owen "Well Qualified," its highest possible rating. Justice Owen has significant bipartisan support, including three former Democrat judges on the Texas Supreme Court and a bipartisan group of 15 past Presidents of the State Bar of Texas. The seat to which Justice Owen has been nominated has been designated a "judicial emergency" by the Judicial Conference of the United...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Elizabeth Dole, the Senate Republican campaign chairman, has assigned fellow Republicans to defend Sen. Rick Santorum from increasingly harsh Democratic attacks on the floor as he faces a tough re-election in Pennsylvania. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy have led political attacks on Santorum that formerly would not have been possible in a less combative Senate. Sen. Hillary Clinton has sniped at Santorum's new book, "It Takes a Family." Although Santorum is third ranking in the party's Senate hierarchy as Republican Conference chairman

In his Monday column, Replacing O'Connor could get ugly, Bob Novak reports that Judge Priscilla Owen is on President Bush's short list to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. He claims that Owen had a secret meeting with the President last week and that things went well. This comports with insider Washington speculation that Bush will name either a conservative woman or minority to fill the post. Here's some information about Owen: Many political and legal insiders consider Owen is viewed as the strongest choice. Owen is only 50 years old and would guarantee a conservative court for 20 years....

<p>Freerepublic will not let me post the original link so I am using Confirm Them as a proxy. Basically he says its Owen, Clemente out of loop because of bad interview w/ W and that Al Gonzales will not be picked. This site has the best SCOTUS info and rumors.</p>

Judge Priscilla Owen U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Confirmed May 25, 2005 Since 1995, Justice Priscilla Owen has served as a distinguished and respected Justice on the Supreme Court of Texas. The American Bar Association unanimously rated Justice Owen "Well Qualified," its highest possible rating.Justice Owen has significant bipartisan support, including three former Democrat judges on the Texas Supreme Court and a bipartisan group of 15 past Presidents of the State Bar of Texas.The seat to which Justice Owen has been nominated has been designated a "judicial emergency" by the Judicial Conference of the United States....

This week's vicious attack on Judge John Roberts by the abortion lobby was not really a desperate effort to defeat him against overwhelming odds. Rather, it is part of an intricate game that not only determines the occupant of one seat on the Supreme Court but can set its ideological course for the next generation. The current hard count for Roberts is 60 senators. That would be more than enough to confirm him and barely enough to end a filibuster. But it is not enough to further the grand strategy for a conservative court. At least 70 votes for confirmation...

Not only is there a bright side for conservatives in the recent Senate “compromise” on Presidential appointments, but it’s hard to find any reason at all to justify celebration by liberal Democrats. President Bush’s long-stalled 5th Circuit nominee, Priscilla Owen, now sits on that federal bench, and confirmations of capable conservatives Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor are soon to follow. Even the prospective nominations of William Meyers and Henry Saad have been sidetracked in thought only. Make no mistake – the dam has cracked and its eventual collapse is as easy as ever to see. The seven Republican signatories...

Texas judge Priscilla Owen, the subject of a long and heated confirmation battle in the U.S. Senate, took the oath of office Monday for her new seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Owen, a justice on the Texas Supreme Court for more than a decade, won Senate confirmation to the federal post last month after a four-year fight over President Bush´s push to place conservatives on the nation´s highest courts. She became the first of Bush´s long-blocked nominees to win approval under an agreement reached by centrists in the Senate.

On the day before Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen was confirmed by the Senate as part of a negotiated compromise, Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin called her "wacko." Harkin, appearing on liberal Randi Rhodes's national radio talk show, became animated as he said of Owen: "This is not a person to put on the bench for a lifetime appointment. This person is wacko! She's wacko!" On the same program, Harkin said Christian broadcasters are "sort of our home-grown Taliban." He added: "They have a direct line to God. And if you don't tune into their line, you're obviously on Satan's...

The filibuster isn't a noble institution, it's a tactic - and one with a checkered past, at that. Liberals decried it in the 1960s when segregationist Southern Democrats used it to thwart the will of the majority to block civil rights legislation. But at least that tawdry application of the filibuster was consistent with its purpose in the United States Senate as a procedure to force legislative compromise.

Alabama: Sessions (R-AL), Yea Shelby (R-AL), Yea Alaska: Murkowski (R-AK), Yea Stevens (R-AK), Present, Giving Live Pair Arizona: Kyl (R-AZ), Yea McCain (R-AZ), Yea Arkansas: Lincoln (D-AR), Nay Pryor (D-AR), Nay California: Boxer (D-CA), Nay Feinstein (D-CA), Nay Colorado: Allard (R-CO), Yea Salazar (D-CO), Nay Connecticut: Dodd (D-CT), Nay Lieberman (D-CT), Nay Delaware: Biden (D-DE), Nay Carper (D-DE), Nay Florida: Martinez (R-FL), Yea Nelson (D-FL), Nay Georgia: Chambliss (R-GA), Yea Isakson (R-GA), Yea Hawaii: Akaka (D-HI), Nay Inouye (D-HI), Not Voting Idaho: Craig (R-ID), Yea Crapo (R-ID), Yea Illinois: Durbin (D-IL), Nay Obama (D-IL), Nay Indiana: Bayh (D-IN), Nay Lugar...

Rhode Island Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee cited a minority opinion by nominee Priscilla Owen as his reason for voting against her confirmation to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The minority opinion is one of a series of opinions Owen took part in during the 2000 session of the Texas Supreme Court. The cases focused on parental notification as a requirement for a minor to receive an abortion. Owen consistently voted in support of notification, which conflicted with a Texas law. Stephen Hourahan, Chafee's press secretary, explained to the Cybercast News Service that the senator had deliberated for a long...

NOW Condemns Senate Confirmation of Priscilla Owen May 25, 2005 Today the Senate approved the controversial nomination of Priscilla Owen after a filibuster was ended — the result of a "compromise" by 14 senators Monday night. Democrats filibustered Owen's nomination twice in the past four years, and it is worth noting that they again garnered more than the 41 votes needed to maintain a filibuster, had that option not been removed by the compromise. "Another notch in Karl Rove's belt," NOW President Kim Gandy called the Senate's 56 to 43 confirmation of Owen to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals,...

Owen's confirmation on Wednesday represents the first of what are likely to be many confirmations of extreme, unqualified and ethically-dubious nominees for seats on appeals court benches that have traditionally been the last hope of low-income Americans, people of color and women for justice. The final vote shows that Democrats had the 40 votes that were needed to sustain a filibuster against Owen...... Thanks to the compromise agreement made possible by seven Democrats who collaborated with Republicans to end the Senate impasse over judicial nominations, Priscilla Owen will now join the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Four years of...

Chafee votes against Owen's confirmation By JOHN E. MULLIGAN Providence Journal Washington bureau WASHINGTON -- Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee was the only Republican to vote today against the confirmation of Priscilla Owen as a federal appellate judge, as a four-year partisan battle over judicial nominations ended. The Rhode Island Republican had been one of the 14 senators who signed a bipartisan deal to prevent the effort to ban judicial filibusters. He expressed hope yesterday that President Bush will henceforth make judicial nominations that can win enough bipartisan support to preclude filibuster threats. Owen's nomination was confirmed on a 56-43 vote,...

Senate Confirms Owen's Nomination to Federal Court 56-43 Vote Follows Deal Ending Dispute Over Filibusters By JIM ABRAMS, AP WASHINGTON (May 25) -- The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Priscilla Owen as a federal appellate judge, ending the four-year ordeal of the Texas jurist who was thrust into the center of the partisan battle over President Bush's judicial nominations. The 56-43 vote to appoint Owen to the New Orlean-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was a consequence of an agreement reached earlier this week that averted, for the time being, a bitter dispute over Democratic use of the filibuster to...

After 4 Years, Senate Votes to Confirm Owen for Federal Bench By DAVID STOUT WASHINGTON, May 25 - Justice Priscilla R. Owen of the Texas Supreme Court was confirmed by the Senate today for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit after four years of frustration. The vote, 56 to 43, was mostly along party lines. It came a day after the Senate voted overwhelmingly to cut off debate on the nomination and give her the yes-or-no decision that her Republican backers had long sought. Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Republican majority leader,...

Alphabetical by Senator Name Akaka (D-HI), NayAlexander (R-TN), Yea Allard (R-CO), YeaAllen (R-VA), YeaBaucus (D-MT), NayBayh (D-IN), NayBennett (R-UT), Yea Biden (D-DE), NayBingaman (D-NM), NayBond (R-MO), YeaBoxer (D-CA), NayBrownback (R-KS), Yea Bunning (R-KY), YeaBurns (R-MT), YeaBurr (R-NC), YeaByrd (D-WV), YeaCantwell (D-WA), Nay Carper (D-DE), NayChafee (R-RI), NayChambliss (R-GA), YeaClinton (D-NY), NayCoburn (R-OK), Yea Cochran (R-MS), YeaColeman (R-MN), YeaCollins (R-ME), YeaConrad (D-ND), NayCornyn (R-TX), Yea Corzine (D-NJ), NayCraig (R-ID), YeaCrapo (R-ID), YeaDayton (D-MN), NayDeMint (R-SC), Yea DeWine (R-OH), YeaDodd (D-CT), Nay Dole (R-NC), YeaDomenici (R-NM), YeaDorgan (D-ND), Nay Durbin (D-IL), NayEnsign (R-NV), YeaEnzi (R-WY), YeaFeingold (D-WI), NayFeinstein (D-CA), Nay Frist (R-TN),...

According to the running live thread, she's in!

Senate Democrats yesterday abandoned their filibuster against Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen, who was nominated more than four years ago to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

I agree with John Podhoretz that politics in the real world calls for some compromise — at least when a matter of principle is not involved. But he’s dreaming if he really thinks the filibuster “compromise” struck last night in the Senate is a “victory.” Let’s say the signatory senators had not bothered to write up the kumbaya agreement with all those pretty phrases about “mutual trust and confidence” and “good faith” and “spirit and continuing commitments” (gossamer, if ever there was, rivaled only by “should only be filibustered under extraordinary circumstances” in the depth of its meaninglessness). Let’s say,...

Yesterday the Senate reached a Compromise on confirmation hearings on certain judicial nominees. But “compromise” normally means an agreement between opposing parties where both make concessions and commit to keeping the bargain. By that standard, this is no compromise. It is, as Shakespeare wrote in Macbeth, “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Allow me to prove the point. The 14 signing Senators committed to vote to close debate on the nominations of Priscilla Owen, Janice Brown, and William Pryor for various Circuit Courts. They made no commitment on nominees William Myers and Henry...

Conservatives have good reason to be unhappy with the agreement announced last night concerning the Senate’s judicial-confirmation process. The agreement does not guarantee up-or-down votes on all of President Bush’s judicial nominees, nor does it restore the Senate’s unswerving 214-year tradition of majority vote for all judicial nominees. In addition, the agreement attempts to rewrite Article II of the Constitution, by giving the Senate an advise-and-consent role in the nomination, as well as the appointment, of judges (see here and here for more). Our objectives are still within reach, however. As one of the signatories to the agreement made clear...

Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen has become one of President Bush’s most controversial judicial nominees. First nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit over four years ago, she has been blocked by Senate Democrats who charge she is a “judicial activist” and too extreme for the federal bench. An exceptionally qualified judge, she is now at the center of the fight to end the judicial filibuster. Barring a last-minute deal, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will use the vote on her nomination to force a change in Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster of...

I'M NOT keen on the politics of destruction, let alone the language of destruction. If I hear about the ''nuclear option" one more time, I will go ballistic. Nuclear warnings should be reserved for the real thing, like say, North Korea. It's not that I approve of the attempt by Republicans to change the rules. The filibuster was once lampooned as a weapon of obstruction. Now it's been revamped as a weapon of moderation, the one thing that makes a president stop and think about the wide appeal of a judicial candidate. What I find most intriguing in the Republican...

Church Teacher at Center of Senate Fight By MICHAEL GRACZYK The Associated Press Saturday, May 21, 2005; 6:10 AM AUSTIN, Texas -- A Sunday school teacher who graduated among the top of her law school class but angered abortion rights advocates by wanting to make it harder for minors to terminate a pregnancy is at the center of the historic storm in the U.S. Senate over the future of the federal judiciary. To President Bush and other supporters, Priscilla Owen is, in the president's words, "a woman of integrity ... known to be a fair and impartial judge who strives...

Please join the Hispanic Alliance for Progress Institute at a rally for Justice Priscilla Owen at the Texas Capitol building in Austin next Tuesday! Please turn out to support Justice Owen, who has been nominated for the U.S Court of Appeals by President Bush, but whose nomination is being stalled by U.S. Senate Democrats. Hispanic Alliance for Progress Institute Rally for Justice Priscilla Owen May 24, 2005 12:00 pm State Capitol Building, South Steps Austin, TX For more information call the Hispanic Alliance for Progress Institute at 512-804-1106 Sincerely, Rafael Bejar RNC Director of Hispanic Coalitions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Tracey Schmitt 202-863-8614 Call For An End To Democrat Obstruction Of Highly Qualified Women  Washington, DC – House Republican Conference Chair Deborah Pryce was joined by NRSC Chair Elizabeth Dole, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, female Republican members of the U.S. House and over 100 other Republican women this afternoon to rally for a vote on two highly qualified judicial nominees.Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown have had their nominations to the federal judiciary blocked by an unprecedented filibuster by Senate Democrats. Today’s rally called for an end to the Democrat obstruction and focused on the need...

Priscilla Owen's nomination to the federal bench has been scrutinized by Democrats who have balked at some of her rulings in Texas. Priscilla Owen was first nominated by President Bush to a federal appeals-court post in May 2001 - four years ago. That's enough time to earn a college degree. So it's hard to believe that there is anything that isn't already known about the Texas Supreme Court justice. And yet, four years into her battle to win Senate confirmation, clouds of rhetoric are obscuring exactly who Ms. Owen is. Republican senators say she is a careful and conservative jurist...

Priscilla Owen, 50, is one of the more talented women of her generation. She finished third in her class at Baylor Law School. She had the best score in the state on the Texas bar exam when she took it in 1977. Her performance as a judge on the Texas Supreme Court has earned her the highest rating from the American Bar Association. It's the sort of career that liberals promoting the advancement of women should swoon over. But Senate Democrats are blocking her nomination to a federal appeals court, not just because she is supposedly too conservative, but because...

Really, you would think the Republicans had proposed to rape the Statue of Liberty. The brummagem moral fanfare imposed on the controversy reminds one of the desperation with which losers will attempt to cope with disappointment at the polls. It is worth pondering what it is that is being fought over. In the 18th century, England went to war with Spain nudged on by evidence that Spanish guards had defaced a British naval officer. What began as the War of Jenkins's Ear had a long afterlife in many phases, but the sliced-off ear was the proximate cause of it, and...

Way back in the Slick Nineties, Bill Clinton famously plea-bargained an apology on the issue of drug use by admitting to having smoked marijuana without inhaling. Recently, a Minnesota Viking running back named Onterrio Smith was found to be in possession of a device called the Whizzinator – which is an artificial penis which carries its own supply of urine and can be used to produce a drug free sample upon demand. Smith, who obviously studied at Slick Willie's knee when it comes to plea- bargaining, told investigators he was taking the stuff to his cousin. Use it himself to...

A divorced Sunday school teacher who graduated among the top of her law school class but angered abortion rights advocates by wanting to make it harder for minors to terminate a pregnancy is at the center of the historic storm in the U.S. Senate over the future of the federal judiciary. To President Bush and other supporters, Priscilla Owen is, in the president's words, "a woman of integrity ... known to be a fair and impartial judge who strives to interpret the law fairly." To her opponents, the 50-year-old Texas Supreme Court justice is a "judicial activist ... (whose) record...

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans on Tuesday picked Texas judge Priscilla Owen to be the flashpoint of a historic battle over the powers of the White House and minority parties in the Senate to shape the federal judiciary, with the vote expected to occur next week. A small group of moderate senators worked furiously behind the scenes to head off what's been dubbed the "nuclear option" because of its potential for escalating parliamentary warfare between Democrats and Republicans that could stall President Bush's legislative agenda. Republicans announced that Owen's nomination for an appeals court seat will be the vehicle for the...

President Bush met with former South African President Nelson Mandela. Rob Portman was sworn in as United States Trade Representative. Some members of the WH press corps attempted to mug Scott McClellan and feed words into his mouth during the press briefing today, regarding the White House statement that the United States' image abroad had suffered irreparable damage by Newsweek's now retracted story about the Koran and Guantanamo Bay. Texas judge Priscilla Owen and California judge Janice Rogers Brown visited President Bush at the White House and then Senate Republicans at the Capitol as lawmakers moved toward a confrontation over...

WASHINGTON, May 15 - Justice Priscilla R. Owen of the Texas Supreme Court declined a chance to be the court's first female chief justice last year so she could remain one of President Bush's nominees to a federal appeals court, Texas lawyers and political figures said in recent interviews. The decision was one of three crucial moments in her judicial career in which she seemed to have been guided by the hand of Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's chief political strategist. Justice Owen, along with Justice Janice Rogers Brown of the California Supreme Court, is now at the center of the...

Speculation in Washington is that Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen may be the first Bush appellate-court nomination brought to the floor in this Senate. Born: Oct. 4, 1954, Palacios, Tex. Education: University of Texas, 1972-73; Baylor University, 1973-75; Baylor University School of Law, 1975-77. Experience: Law clerk at Sheehy, Lovelace & Mayfield, 1976-77; associate and partner at Andrews, Kurth, Campbell & Jones, 1978-94; elected justice on Texas Supreme Court, 1995-current. Qualifications: Received a unanimous “well-qualified” rating from the American Bar Association. Graduated at the top of her class in law school and had the No. 1 grade on the...

Almost 1,500 days have passed since President Bush announced his first eleven judicial nominees, an exceptionally diverse slate of qualified candidates that even the New York Times said was “notable for its inclusion of women and minorities.” Since that May 9, 2001, day, America has endured a terrorist attack, bestowed iconic status on a gizmo called the iPod, produced eleven of Hollywood’s top-20 all-time blockbusters, and birthed democracy in two long-oppressed regimes. But one thing has persisted: Senate Democrats’ bare-fisted attacks on Texas supreme court justice Priscilla Owen. Justice Owen’s resume is impeccable: top of her law-school class (completing...

T here may be worse things you can call a judge, but "judicial activist" has become one of today's top epithets. President Bush makes clear he doesn't want them in the federal judiciary; he opposes judges who legislate from the bench. And even liberals who so often celebrate the latest judge-made law and the republic's "living Constitution" -- in brief, champions of judicial activism -- tell us that there's really no such thing as a judicial activist. They're just judges doing the old-fashioned job of judging. Except, when they're telling us there are conservative judicial activists. You know, the ones...

The main liberal criticism of Justice Priscilla Owen, who will likely be the test case for the Democrats' judicial filibuster, is the allegation that fellow-justice Alberto Gonzalez once accused her, in a court opinion, of "judicial activism." We conclusively refuted that claim here. Gonzales did not so refer to Owen's dissent--as he has repeatedly said--and, more important, it would be absurd for anyone to claim that Owen's dissent, which deferred to the fact-finding by the trial court, and advocated affirming the judgment of the trial court, as previously affirmed by the Texas Court of Appeals, was somehow a case of...

It looks like Priscilla Owen will be the judicial nominee over whom the Senate rules change battle will be fought. If so, the Democrats can be expected to ramp up their claims that she is an extremist and a "minion" of the right, as the always-charming Senator Schumer has put it. A friend of mine who knows Owen well has a different perspective. He writes: