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Justice Janet?!
With the announcement that Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is calling it a career, there is no shortage of rumors as to who will replace him.
One name swirling around the rumor mill is former Arizona Governor and current U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
President Obama, who decides the nominee, hasn’t publicly announced who he is considering — only saying there is a “list of 10.”
News agencies everywhere are scrambling to figure out who those 10 could be, and on every list we could hunt down, Napolitano is near the top.
The folks at Fox News were suggesting this morning that Napolitano’s handling of the Christmas underwear bomb fiasco might hinder her chances at becoming the next Supreme Court Justice.
In case you forgot, on Christmas Day, a guy converted his undies into an explosive device and tried to blow up an airplane.
The dude, Umar Farouk Abdulmatallab, was on all sorts of government watch lists and claimed to be working for al Qaeda, so there was more than a little concern as to how this guy was able to get on an plane. Napolitano, however, said “the system worked,” creating a media shitstorm.
One additional thing about Napolitano: Supreme Court justices must make ballsy decisions, and Janet’s not known for sticking her, well, neck out. Too much the career pol for that.
Some of the other names discussed for the post are Attorney General Eric Holder, District of Columbia U.S. Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland (from Chicago like Obama), and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.
