White House Beat: On the Confirmation Tour with John!!!

The NYT's got the scoop on your favorite nom!

He's jurisprudence's favorite sweetie!

His teachers remember him as the brightest of boys, but his classmates say he never lorded it over them.

He's totally not stuck-up:

Though he earned more than $1 million a year by the time he left the blue-chip Washington law firm of Hogan & Hartson to go on the bench two years ago, he often ate lunch in the firm cafeteria, chatting with co-workers and junior colleagues.

And he doesn't get all hung up in politics:

"It's not as if his friends are all conservative, or all liberal, or all anything else. His friends are his friends, and he's not the kind of personality where conversations with him tend to turn political."

He' got super cool idols:

In his 2003 written testimony, Judge Roberts cited Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis D. Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, Robert H. Jackson and John Marshall among the Supreme Court judges he most admired. One was a Republican, three were Democrats and one was a Federalist, but all were deeply influential in their day, and all would make any law professor's short list of all-time greats.

He can act!  Even his teachers love him:

The school yearbook from 1972, his junior year, shows he played Peppermint Patty in the production of "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown."

He impressed almost everyone. Lawrence Sullivan, his high school math teacher, recalled on Wednesday, "It became very, very clear and evident when he first came here that he was a person who was destined to do big things."

He's a little bit of a geek:

Beth Linnen, a former classmate at Notre Dame elementary school, still remembers John Roberts's nerdy glasses and winning smile. "If you said to me, 'Who was the smartest kid in your grade-school class?' I would have said, 'John Roberts,' " Ms. Linnen said. "Some kids who are smart are sort of geeky, but he just got along with everyone."

But don't be fooled.  He can be tough!:

Tenacity was a hallmark on the football field too.

"He wasn't that big, he wasn't that fast, but he wasn't bashful about butting his head against guys three times his size," said Bob MacLaverty, who beat John Roberts in that student council election, but remained close enough friends that they stood at each other's weddings.

He's written about lowering the wall of separation between Church and State but he was just doing a favor for a friend - the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!!!!!

In 1991, he signed a brief asking the court to lower the wall of separation between church and state.

The government had asked the Supreme Court to discard an earlier test and overturn a lower court ruling that held a clergyman could not give an official address at a junior high school graduation in Providence, R.I. It asked the court to rule that "civic acknowledgments of religion in public life do not offend the establishment clause" of the Constitution "as long as they neither threaten the establishment of an official religion nor coerce participation in religious activities."

At the time, officials in the first Bush administration told reporters that the reason for intervening was a tactical decision to try to draw out Justice David H. Souter, then the court's newest member, and get him on the side of the administration, which was hoping eventually to change the approach to religion in public.

He thinks the the Baby Jesus is really cool  in a totally respectful way that isn't  all like  "particularly political":

Friends of Judge Roberts and his wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, a lawyer at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, say they share a strong faith. "They are deeply religious," said Fred F. Fielding, the former White House counsel for President Reagan, "but they don't wear it on their sleeves at all."

The couple are members of the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda, Md., a Catholic congregation that includes about 1,500 families. Like many Washington-area churches, its members have included prominent political figures. Thomas O'Neill, the former speaker of the House known as Tip, as well as Edmund Muskie, the former United States senator, secretary of state and presidential candidate, once attended, said Gary R. Davies, a church deacon. More recently, L. Paul Bremer III, who served as the United States' administrator in Iraq, was a member.

The church, Mr. Davies said, is not particularly political, though it does organize two or so busloads of members each year to participate in an anti-abortion rally marking the Roe v. Wade decision. "I have never heard anyone talk about politics," Mr. Davies said. "It just does not belong."

He's a corporate gun slinger  wrapped in a black robe, with an excuse for every strong position he's ever taken.  And when the Senate acts fast, and there's no reason to think they won't, he'll be YOURS! 

Related story: Star White House Beat Reporter, Elisabeth Bumiller, has the inside scoop on what an interview with PRESIDENT BUSH for a vacancy on the Supreme Court is really like!!!  Hidden secrets!  Big prizes!  And lots of super cool exercise tips!  Giant John Roberts poster included!

Comments

[Matt]

He is SO totally kewl!

[doghouse riley]

Y'know, as someone who would like to respect the sanctity of the process, not make snap judgements, acknowledge that the other party controls the White House and the Congress, honor honest differences of opinion, and help work towards solving the very real problems in this country and around the globe, I'd appreciate it if the media would fucking go somewhere and kill itself.

[Elayne Riggs]

Hey, I had that first Tiger Beat, I remember the cover!

Honestly, I don't see any difference between the way conservatives are treating Roberts and the way liberals treated Edwards. Why can't their side have a Pretty-Boy John too?

[David Duff]

From the outside looking in (and that means from the other side of the Atlantic), and reading your anthology of quotes, it would seem that Mr. Roberts would make an excellent judge. Ms. Riggs, above, reminds us all, in effect, that what's sauce for tth goose is also sauce for the gander.

You really must come to terms with the fact that Bush beat the pants off your lot at the last election, and that whilst he's in the White House, he's going to do exactly what a Democratic president would do, make the most of it. All this bad-tempered, sour-puss attitude will only give you wrinkles, pursed-lip lines, galloping acne and head-aches, and we'll all fall out of love with you. Cheer up!

[alt hippo]

"You really must come to terms with the fact that Bush beat the pants off your lot at the last election..."

Oi. I've also been getting advice from the faith-based side of the internet.

Umh, Mr. Duff, did you notice that the original post was spoofing the coverage, not the president (not that there's anything wrong with that)?

[Helga Fremlin]

Brilliant Robin!

[Mad Kane]

Funny post!

[Scott Lemieux]

Comaring Bumiller to Tiger Beat is grossly unfair to the latter...

[Avedon]

[applause]