The Hill catches a surprisingly frank SD Sen. John Thune.
"I know the administration is being pushed [on picking a gay justice], but I think it would be a bridge too far right now. It seems to me this first pick is going to be a kind of important one, and my hope is that he'll play it a little more down the middle. A lot of people would react very negatively.”
(ea) If that's so, couldn't fellow Senator Jim DeMint serve as a barometer?
The Hill, again:
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) also wouldn't rule out the possibility of a gay nominee, though he said Obama should avoid nominating someone based on ethnic or social profiling.
“He should just focus on a proven judge who understands the Constitution and has demonstrated a willingness to support the rule of law,” DeMint said. “I hope this does not turn into some kind of ethnic profiling or social profiling, that it's got to be a woman or a black or something other. That doesn't make any sense to me.”
If Jim DeMint doesn't seem keen on making it an issue, maybe it's not much of one to the Republican base. After all, DeMint famously suggested barring gays from teaching in public schools during a 2004 debate, so his bar would theoretically be higher (DeMint apologized later for the remarks as being distracting, although on Meet the Press, he didn't go further, saying it was a local school board issue).
Another 2012 prospect, Bob Corker, weighs in:
“I’ve never thought about it. But I don’t look at things through that lens in regards to the type of position we’re talking about."
[Hat tip: The Washington Monthly]
