Ahha! As long as we’re talking about complete irrelevancies which are nonetheless terribly fun to point out, it turns out that one of Bush attorney Ted Olson’s law partners is none other than Eugene Scalia. As in Justice Antonin Scalia’s son.
Olson, of course, will be arguing for Governor Bush in tomorrow’s oral arguments before the US Supreme Court. This, presumably, because he has wrapped up work on the Arkansas Project, the multi-million dollar effort to dig up dirt on Bill Clinton funded by Richard Mellon-Scaife and run through The American Spectator Magazine.
Ahhh ⦠but I digress. Does Scalia have a conflict of interest? Has Scalia Jr. done any work on the Bush case? Should Scalia, Sr. step aside?
Of course, none of this matters (Supreme Court Justices don’t recuse themselves); but isn’t fun to point out as long as Scalia completely tipped his hand in his utterly transparent concurring opinion to the stay order?
But perhaps we’re not being thorough enough on this whole recusal question. Souter and Thomas were appointed by George W.’s dad. Surely they have a conflict and should step aside, right? And in all fairness Breyer and Ginsburg were appointed by Bill Clinton and Al Gore is Clinton’s vice-president. So they should step aside too. And if you’re going to go by that standard Rehnquist, Scalia, O’Connor and Kennedy were appointed by Ronald Reagan. And George W.’s father was his vice-president. So they should step aside.
That just leaves Ford-appointee John Paul Stevens…
I can live with that.
