Examining the Bush legacy in 'The Decider'

MICHAEL BESCHLOSS, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Anybody who wants to say that George Bush has had not much domestic impact compared to foreign policy – take a look at the Supreme Court. They will bear George Bush's stamp for 30 or 40 years.

By 2005, the court had gone eleven years without a new appointment—the longest stretch in American history.  That all changed that summer when justice Sandra Day O'Connor  announced her retirement and chief justice William Rehnquist died from throat cancer. Bush nominated judge John Roberts of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to replace the Chief Justice.

MCCLELLAN: They connected very much on a personal level.  Not just a professional level. But he liked Justice Roberts a lot.

Video   Bush’s decisions affect Supreme Court Dec. 29: In “The Decider,” Hardball’s Chris Matthews and political panelists talk about George Bush’s appointments to the Supreme Court during his term as president and the lasting impressions those decisions will leave. Hardball

FRUM: Had you polled a 100 people—a 100 experts on the Supreme Court and said, "If you had a responsible—somewhat right of center—President and there was a vacancy on the Supreme Court, who would you pick?”  Well, of course he'd pick John Roberts.

Switching one conservative chief justice for another didn't change the philosophical make-up of the court. But Bush still had the O'Connor seat to replace. And as with many decisions, he went with his gut.

BUSH: "This morning I'm proud to announce that I'm nominating Harriet Ellen Myers to serve as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court..."

This time the Decider came in for deafening criticism.

HAYES: For a lot of conservatives it was a real slap in the face.  They knew nothing about her judicial philosophy.  It was unclear that she even had a judicial philosophy. 

(Myers and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, with press)

Question: "Senator Hatch what do you say to conservatives who are hostile to this nomination?

Hatch: "Some of my colleagues are, but...”

Bush's choice of his loyal White House counsel and fellow Texan  swiftly swept away much of the goodwill that met the Roberts nomination.

FRUM: It's the best and the worst sides of George Bush. At his best, he approaches decisions very conscientiously. And then there's the other Bush wants to show his power, who wants to reward his friends, who feels beleaguered and badly understood. And that was the George Bush who sent up Harriet Myers.  

The outcry over Myers from both conservatives and liberals caused Bush to quickly back-pedal. Myers withdrew, and he named a U.S. appeals court judge with bona fide conservative credentials.

PETE WILLIAMS:, NBC NEWS JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Justice Alito tends to be a much more solidly conservative justice.  And what that means is the Court has moved to the right.  It has become—more favorably inclined toward restrictions on abortion.  It has become less willing to entertain the use of affirmative action, especially in school admissions.  And probably making it a little tougher to prevail on job discrimination cases, especially in cases involving equal pay for men versus women.

Bush's imprint on the Federal Judiciary goes well beyond the supreme court and long into the future.

BUSH: A lot has happened since 2000. I have appointed more than 1/3 of the judges now sitting on the federal bench, and these men and women are jurists of the highest caliber with an abiding belief in the sanctity of our constitution.

Today, 62 percent of federal judges were selected by Bush or his Republican predecessors, the culmination of a determined conservative strategy dating back to the Reagan administration.

WILLIAMS: The conservatives were carefully cultivating a group of federal judges, Constitutional experts, moving them along the line through the federal courts, the courts of appeal.  Getting them in a position where they would be ready to be nominated. And the President was able to harvest their good work.

Whatever else one might say about George W. Bush, the Decider-in-Chief has achieved his goal of remaking the federal courts for a long time to come.

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