President Bush Shouldn’t Pick Gonzales for Supreme Court, Specter Says 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 11, 2005
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Pro-life advocates who don’t want President Bush to name Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as his next Supreme Court nominee are getting help from an unlikely source — Sen. Arlen Specter. The pro-abortion Pennsylvania Republican told a television talk show over the weekend that he thought it was too soon for Gonzales, who recently became Bush’s top attorney, to move up to the nation’s high court.
"I believe it’s a little too soon for Attorney General Gonzales to move up,” Specter said on NBC’s "Meet the Press” program. "He’s an able fellow, but we just went through a tough confirmation hearing, and my sense is that the national interest would be best served if he stayed in that job right now.”
Gonzales is a longtime associate of Bush and the president named him to the Texas Supreme Court while serving as that state’s governor.
However, pro-life groups oppose a potential Gonzales nomination because he backed allowing teenagers to bypass the parental involvement laws on abortion and would not likely favor overturning Roe v. Wade.
Gonzales won Senate confirmation as attorney general in February on a 60-36 vote.
Last week, Bush named appeals court judge John Roberts to replace pro-life Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who recently passed away. Hearings on Roberts’ nomination begin Monday and Specter, as Judiciary Committee chairman, will oversee them. Now, Bush needs to pick someone to replace outgoing pro-abortion Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
