NPR White House correspondent Scott Horsley forwards this White House radio pool report from Talk Radio News Service's Paul Brandus:

President went to Five Guys burgers - agent said NJ Ave SE, near the Nationals ballpark. The pres ordered several bags of food and from my vantage point it looked like he paid with four $20 bills - he told me he got a cheeseburger and fries.

I'm sure this is just a coincidence, but only three days ago, President Obama nominated someone to the Supreme Court whom some have compared to Justice Felix Frankfurter. Just sayin'.

Last week I was in Milwaukee, meeting with the NPR member station and speaking to NPR donors. Consequently, there was no ScuttleButton puzzle.

And there have been consequences.

Since then, the Milwaukee Brewers have coughed up their lead in the National League Central, having been swept by the Twins and then losing a series to the Cardinals. Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle's (D) tax raising plans are under attack.

And all because there was no ScuttleButton puzzle last week when I was in Milwaukee.

I think Milwaukee has suffered enough. So ScuttleButton is back. And so are the rules: Take one word (or concept) per button, add 'em up, and whaddaya get? Usually the answer to the rebus is a famous name or a common expression. And don't focus on a political answer. It doesn't necessarily have to be political, though it could be.

A correct answer chosen at random gets his or her name in this column. Personally, I can't imagine a greater honor.

You can't use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state -- you won't win without that) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

ScuttleButton is a regular Friday feature on the Political Junkie blog (except when I'm in Milwaukee). Here's the answer to the last puzzle.

And, by adding your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, you will be the first on your block to receive notice when a new puzzle goes up on the blog. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org. Or you can make sure to get an automatic RSS feed whenever a new Junkie post goes up by clicking here.

Good luck, have fun, and happy Friday!

How much opposition will there be to the choice of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court? Will Harry Reid become the first Senate majority leader to be defeated since, well, Ernest McFarland (D-AZ) in 1952? And will Joe Sestak really take on Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania?

No idea. But those are among the questions we raised in this week's episode of our "It's All Politics" podcast which, in the wacky world of homonyms, you can hear here:

Credits --
Nonstop talkers: Ron Elving and Ken Rudin
Producer: Evie Stone

Inquiring minds like Alan Miles of Seabeck, Wash., wants to know:

I have a question for you about the "shout-outs" on the podcast: Are they recorded specifically for the program? I'm thinking especially about the fairly recent ones from Alan Simpson and Bernard Goldberg. At first, I thought they were serious comments uttered in another context. Now, I'm wondering whether they are really lifted from another source -- or are recorded tongue-in-cheek specifically for the podcast?

Both were taken from other sources. Simpson's comments about my being a "rascal" were from the previous day's Political Junkie segment on Talk of the Nation. Goldberg's comments about "metrosexuals" and NPR (sheesh) were from a conversation he had with Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly. Here's one difference: Simpson has shown an ability for tongue-in-cheek asides.

Wanna subscribe to the podcast? You can do it through iTunes.

Wanna hear previous episodes? Click here.

Wanna be on my weekly mailing list? Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

Wanna follow my rantings on Twitter? Go to http://twitter.com/kenrudin.

Wanna send me campaign buttons to illustrate future blog posts? Really, you should. Has anyone seen anything from New Jersey or Virginia? I need 'em!

Here's some good news for Sen. Chris Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who is seeking a sixth term next year: He now trails his likely Republican opponent, former Rep. Rob Simmons, by 45-39 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this week. That 6-point margin is an improvement from the 16-point deficit he faced in the Quinnipiac poll back on April 2.

Here's the bad news: The poll shows that Connecticut voters still disapprove of Dodd by a 53-38 percent margin. His numbers have improved over the past two months, "but they are still lousy," said poll director Doug Schwartz. And businessman Merrick Alpert, a total political unknown who is challenging Dodd in the Democratic primary, is nonetheless getting a quarter of the vote.

Continue reading "Connecticut's Dodd, Still Trailing But Improving, Up With New Ad" >

May 29, 1956:

The GOP, led by Eisenhower, will sweep both Senate races in Kentucky in November.

A divided Kentucky Democratic Party renominates Sen. Earle Clements, the Senate majority whip, in the primary over a candidate backed by Gov. Happy Chandler. Republicans nominate former Rep. Thruston Morton for the seat.

Regarding the Senate seat held by Alben Barkley, a Democrat who died in April, the two parties will later nominate ex-Gov. Lawrence Wetherby (D) and ex-Sen. John Sherman Cooper (R).

In November it will be a GOP sweep in Kentucky, led by President Eisenhower.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

NOTE: Do you have any interest in seeing this feature continue daily? Or should it be cut back to once a week? Let me know what you think.

If the thought of Friday wasn't exciting enough, there's this to look forward in tomorrow's Political Junkie:

-- A look at the two gubernatorial races up in 2009, in New Jersey and Virginia.

-- The new episode of our "It's All Politics" podcast, recorded today, will be up on the site tomorrow morning.

-- And a new ScuttleButton puzzle.

Most likely to get knocked off in the 2010 primary? Burris tops our list.

The news that Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) may take on Sen. Arlen Specter in next year's Democratic primary is not especially good news for the Pennsylvania senator, but it still doesn't compare to the precarious situation of Sen. Roland Burris.

The Illinois Democrat, appointed to the Senate by the disgraced Rod Blagojevich in his waning days as governor, found himself in the news once again this week. A federal wiretap installed during the investigation of Blagojevich reveals a conversation Burris had with Rob Blagojevich, the ex-gov's brother.

While Burris says nothing on the tape indicates he broke the law, his words DO contradict his earlier sworn testimony that he had not talked to anyone in the governor's office about the Senate post, vacated by Barack Obama when he became president. If nothing else, the tape shines a light on the process that brought him the Senate appointment. And the light is unflattering.

Burris makes it clear that he desperately wants the Senate seat and would be willing to help the governor raise money, writing a personal check if necessary. He never sent a check, apparently, but his overwhelming desire to get Blago's imprimatur for the Senate is a bit, well, sad.

Let's not forget that the Senate ethics committee is looking at Burris' statements. Let's not forget that the senior senator from Illinois, Majority Whip Dick Durbin, is clearly looking elsewhere for a Senate candidate. All of which keeps Burris atop our list of incumbents Most Endangered of Getting Knocked Off in the Primary Next Year.

Our top five:

Continue reading "Specter Gets Primary Foe, But Burris Remains Most At Risk -- Top 5 Most Vulnerable List" >

May 28, 1960:

Terry Sanford, considered a racial moderate, is the leading vote-getter in the North Carolina Democratic primary for governor, but he fails to win a majority of the vote. Sanford, a former state senator, will win the June 25 runoff against a segregationist candidate and go on to win the governorship in November.

He will later twice try for the Democratic presidential nomination, and in 1986 he will be elected to the U.S. Senate.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

Here's a question from Carol Berman of Baltimore:

What can you tell me about a so-called "Jewish seat" on the Supreme Court?

It's not officially called that, of course. But after Associate Justice Benjamin Cardozo died in 1938, Felix Frankfurter succeeded him on the court. And when Frankfurter retired in 1962, President Kennedy named another Jew, Arthur Goldberg, to succeed him. That's when the term "Jewish seat" began to be widely used.

Continue reading "The 'Jewish Seat' On The Supreme Court" >

As it turned out, President Obama has nominated Sonia Sotomayor, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals, to fill a soon-to-be-vacant seat on the Supreme Court. But he could have picked someone with no legal experience at all.

And that leads to this question from Allen Ayers of Williamsburg, Va.:

The United States Constitution contains no prerequisites for appointment to the Supreme Court. How many U.S. Supreme Court justices have not been lawyers and what were their names?

You are certainly correct about qualifications (or lack of same) to be considered for the Supreme Court. But every single justice on the court, dating back to John Jay, has been a lawyer; each one either attended law school, took law classes, was admitted to the bar, or practiced law.

Not every Democrat welcomed Sen. Specter's entry into their party.

A bombshell today from Brian Beutler in Talking Points Memo: Pennsylvania Congressman Joe Sestak plans to challenge newly minted Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter in next year's Democratic primary.

Continue reading "Report: Sestak Plans To Challenge Specter In PA Dem Primary" >

A busy Political Junkie segment on today's Talk of the Nation.

Yesterday was the easy part: naming a successor to retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Now the confirmation fight begins. And will it be much of a fight? Special guest: Ken Duberstein.

Plus: how the California court ruling on same-sex marriage affects next year's gubernatorial race. How Roland Burris' phone calls with Blago's guys affects his tenure as a senator from Illinois. And, without even waiting for today's program to begin, how we answer the pressing questions of the day. This one is from Brandon George of Gilbert, Ariz.:

Who are all those people speaking in the intro to your Political Junkie segment on Talk of the Nation each week?

Every Wednesday, the segment begins with a tape montage of notable political lines. They are:

"There you go again" -- Ronald Reagan, responding to what he said were exaggerations in his 1980 debate with President Jimmy Carter.

"Where's the beef?" -- Walter Mondale's put down of Gary Hart during their 1984 Democratic debate.

"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" -- Part of Barry Goldwater's acceptance speech at the 1964 Republican convention.

"You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore" -- Part of Richard Nixon's bitter "final press conference" after he lost the race for governor of California to Pat Brown in 1962.

"Lipstick" -- The difference, according to Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, between a pit bull and a hockey mom, during her acceptance speech at the 2008 GOP convention.

"But I'm the decider" -- President George W. Bush, acknowledging that he's been hearing the criticism of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld but insisting at the same time that it's his call "what is best," April 2006.

"[scream]" -- The end of a rousing speech by Howard Dean, following his second-place finish in the 2004 Democratic caucuses in Iowa.

OK, back to the topic at hand. Join host Neal Conan and me every Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET for the Junkie segment on TOTN, where you can often, but not always, find interesting conversation, useless trivia questions and sparkling jokes. And you can win a Political Junkie T-shirt!

Last week's segment, with special guest Richard Viguerie, can be heard here.

If your local NPR station doesn't carry TOTN, you can hear the program on the Web or on HD Radio. And if you are a subscriber to XM/Sirius radio, you can find the show there as well (siriusly).

May 27, 1952:

Taft's victory over Ike in Texas will later be overturned at the GOP convention.

The Texas Republican state committee, controlled by allies of Ohio Sen. Robert Taft, refuses to seat 484 supporters of Dwight Eisenhower.

The Eisenhower forces will cry foul, but it won't be until the national convention in July when the party will reverse the action taken by Texas Republicans and seat delegates favorable to Eisenhower. It will be a key vote that ultimately gives Ike the nomination over Taft.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

Back on May 1, following the announcement that David Souter would leave the Supreme Court, we offered the contest of a lifetime:

The first person to correctly guess who President Obama would name to the court wins a genuine "Nixon's the One" bumper sticker from 1968.

Well, this morning, Obama chose federal appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

And the first person who predicted that was ... Maura Spiegelman of Silver Spring, Md. Maura wins the bumper sticker -- and her name in lights!

Congratulations!

Strange-But-True Dept.: Maura is also a past ScuttleButton puzzle winner!

Thanks to everyone at member station WUWM in Milwaukee for their hospitality and good humor during my visit last Thursday. It was standing room only for my speech at the Boerner Botanical Gardens in Hales Corners on Thursday night ... but that's because we hid the chairs.

A special shout out to General Manager Dave Edwards, Development Director Noel Skarpmoen, Lake Effect host Mitch Teich and, last but not least, the incomparable Lara Couture, WUWM's development specialist, who made everything go smoothly.

Sonia Sotomayor is President Obama's choice to succeed retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter.

In 1998, the Senate confirmed Sotomayor, nominated by President Clinton, as a judge to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. The vote was 67-29. All Democrats present (42) voted yes. The GOP vote was split, with 25 voting yes and 29 voting no. Here's how current Senate Republicans voted on the Sotomayor nomination back in '98:

YES (7): Lugar (IN), Collins (ME), Snowe (ME), Cochran (MS), Gregg (NH), Bennett (UT), Hatch (UT).

NO (11): Sessions (AL), Shelby (AL), Kyl (AZ), McCain (AZ), Grassley (IA), Brownback (KS), Roberts (KS), McConnell (KY), Inhofe (OK), Hutchison (TX), Enzi (WY).

In addition, Pennsylvania's Specter, then a Republican but now a Democrat, voted yes.

We're minutes away from the announcement by President Obama that he will nominate appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

What a better time to post last week's episode of our "It's All Politics" podcast, where I fearlessly predicted Obama's choice would be, um, Diane Wood.

And you can hear it all here:

Credits --
Nonstop talkers: Ron Elving and Ken Rudin
Producer: Evie Stone

Wanna subscribe to the podcast? You can do it through iTunes.

Wanna hear previous episodes? Click here.

Wanna be on my weekly mailing list? Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

Wanna follow my rantings on Twitter? Go to http://twitter.com/kenrudin.

Wanna send me campaign buttons to illustrate future blog posts? Really, you should.

NPR has confirmed that President Obama will nominate Sonia Sotomayor, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. If confirmed, she will be the first Hispanic justice on the court as well as the third woman, following Sandra Day O'Connor (1981-2006) and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1993-present).

The announcement will come at 10:15 a.m. ET in the East Room at the White House.

She was originally named to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1992 by the first President Bush. President Clinton named her to the appeals court in 1998.

This will be the first Supreme Court nomination by a Democratic president in 15 years, when Clinton chose Stephen Breyer in 1994.

Ideologically, the nomination should not alter the makeup of the court, as Souter, though appointed by the first President Bush, is a fairly reliably liberal vote.

May 26, 1989:

Rep. Donald "Buz" Lukens is found guilty of having sex with a 16-year old girl. The Ohio Republican faces a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. But he says he won't resign and plans to continue his congressional career.

Lukens will be badly defeated in the May 1990 GOP primary by state Rep. John Boehner, who still holds the seat. And in October of '90, the House ethics committee announces that new sexual harassment charges, this involving a congressional employee, have been filed against Lukens. He will resign his House seat on Oct. 24.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

May 22, 1990:

The Republican primary battle to replace retiring Sen. Jim McClure (R) in Idaho is won by Rep. Larry Craig. He will go on to defeat the Democratic nominee, Boise city councilman Ron Twilegar, in November and serve three terms in the Senate.

In August of 2007, it will be reported that Craig was arrested in June at a Minneapolis airport bathroom on a morals charge. The senator, who had been wavering on running again in 2008, eventually announced his retirement.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

May 21, 1995:

Les Aspin, a Wisconsin Democrat and former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee who gave up his congressional seat to become President Clinton's first secretary of defense, dies of a stroke. He was 56.

Aspin took over Armed Services in 1985, ousting Illinois Democrat Melvin Price. His expertise on defense matters brought him into the Clinton Cabinet. But his tenure at Defense lasted less than a year. He began trying to implement Clinton's policy of lifting the ban against gays in the military. But what sealed his doom were chronic managerial problems; he was forced out of his job in December of '93.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

If you're in proximity of Milwaukee, Wis., on Thursday night, and you want to help out NPR member station WUWM -- and if you want to be captivated by a political speech that includes (yes, it's true) ScuttleButton puzzles -- then you'll make your way to the station fundraiser at Boerner Botanical Gardens in Hales Corners. Event starts at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets for the fundraiser are $10. For more information, call (414) 270-1225.

A busy Political Junkie segment on today's Talk of the Nation.

Results from yesterday's special congressional primary in California, and a look ahead to gubernatorial primaries next month in New Jersey and Virginia. One Western governor may have removed his name from 2012 Republican speculation. And what are conservatives planning as President Obama is close to naming a new Supreme Court nominee? (Special guest: conservative fundraiser/strategist Richard Viguerie.)

Plus: the Florida gov race heats up, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) gets a primary challenger, Democrats circle the Pelosi wagon, RNC Chair Steele is again under the gun, and what to do with Guantanamo detainees.

Join host Neal Conan and me every Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET for the Junkie segment on TOTN, where you can often, but not always, find interesting conversation, useless trivia questions and sparkling jokes. And you can win a Political Junkie T-shirt!

Last week's segment can be heard here.

If your local NPR station doesn't carry TOTN, you can hear the program on the Web or on HD Radio. And if you are a subscriber to XM/Sirius radio, you can find the show there as well (siriusly).

It won't become official until July 14, because no one received a majority of the votes in Tuesday's special congressional primary to replace now-Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis in California's 32nd District.

But once all is said and done, and the runoff is history, the next member of Congress from the district, which is centered in east Los Angeles, will be Judy Chu.

Chu, the chair of the California Board of Equalization, was the leading Democrat in the special primary, where everyone ran on the same ballot and the top candidate of each party advances to the July runoff. With about 89 percent of the votes tallied as of this writing, Chu has 32 percent of the vote, compared with 24 percent for state Sen. Gil Cedillo (D). Chu heads to the runoff against Republican Betty Chu, a cousin, and Christopher Agrella, the Libertarian Party candidate.

Yesterday's result, which was expected, brings to an end the Hispanic hold on the seat after nearly 27 years -- since George Danielson (D) resigned in 1982 to become a judge. (Matthew Martinez held it from '82 until he lost to Solis in the 2000 Democratic primary.)

The district's demographics show two-thirds of the population Hispanic, 20 percent Asian, 12 percent white and 2 percent black.

Other Results. Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl won renomination in yesterday's Democratic primary. In an overwhelmingly Democratic city and with no Republican running, Ravenstahl is all but guaranteed another term.

And in Philadelphia, Seth Williams, a former assistant prosecutor, won the Democratic primary for district attorney. The incumbent, Lynne Abraham (D), is retiring after 18 years. With a victory in November, Williams will become the city's first African-American D.A.

May 20, 2006:

Despite poor reviews of his handling of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin wins a second term, defeating Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu in a runoff election.

The voting, as expected, is mostly on racial lines, and that was thought to be a problem for Nagin, who is black, in a city where more than half of its residents fled in the wake of the 2005 hurricane. But Nagin wins back some of the conservative white voters who supported him in the last election but abandoned him after Katrina. He portrayed Landrieu, the brother of Sen. Mary Landrieu and son of Moon Landrieu -- the city's last white mayor -- as part of the "politics as usual" establishment.

Nagin defeats Landrieu, 52-48 percent.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

While you're pondering that headline, here's a question from Matthew Bond of Nashville, Tenn.:

At the White House Correspondents' Dinner, why did President Obama characterize John Boehner as being of a color "not found in nature"? What did I miss?

In Washington, people for the longest time have always wanted to know about (or made jokes about) Boehner's perpetual tan. (The Almanac of American Politics calls him "eternally tanned." Kim Clark, writing in The New Republic, said Boehner is "preternaturally tan." You get the point.)

Ron Elving and I, in our award-winning "It's All Politics" podcasts, have often joked about Boehner being a "person of color."

At the White House dinner earlier this month, Obama played along. In "suggesting" that Boehner, the House minority leader, is a "person of color" -- Ron, did we copyright that joke? -- the president followed by saying, "Although not a color that appears in the natural world."

For the record -- and I can't believe the conversation has turned serious -- there have been four genuine African-American Republicans in Congress since Reconstruction:

Rep. Oscar De Priest (IL) -- 1929-34
Sen. Ed Brooke (MA) -- 1967-78
Rep. Gary Franks (CT) -- 1991-96
Rep. J.C. Watts (OK) -- 1995-2002

Now that President Obama has called for fuel mileage standards to be raised, a bunch of our readers are demanding that ScuttleButton puzzle standards be raised as well.

Last week's puzzle was "too easy," complained Judy Keim of West Chester, Pa.; Daniel Polk of Dallas; Joy Ammons of Greenville, Pa.; Michael White of San Mateo, Calif.; Michael DePalatis of Atlanta and Dawn Hewitt of Bloomington, Ind. Debra Kirsch of Bethesda, Md., went further: "Toooooooo easy," she wrote. And Rob Loewy of North Potomac, Md., pleaded, "C'mon, Ken, give us a challenge next time!"

And yet, not everyone got the puzzle right.

Continue reading "We Have A ScuttleButton Winner!" >

The impending Memorial Day weekend reminds us that summer is around the corner. And so, for that matter, are two gubernatorial primaries -- to choose a Republican nominee in New Jersey and a Democratic nominee in Virginia.

Here's our first attempt at a 2009 political calendar, which will be updated throughout the year:

Continue reading "Jersey, Virginia Gov Primaries Highlight 2009 Calendar" >

May 19, 1992:

AuCoin will eventually be declared the Dem primary winner but lose to Packwood in November.

The Democratic primary battle to find an opponent for Sen. Bob Packwood (R) in November is too close to call.

Rep. Les AuCoin finishes just 39 votes ahead of businessman Harry Lonsdale, the 1990 nominee against GOP Sen. Mark Hatfield. AuCoin will eventually claim the Dem nomination but lose to Packwood in the general election.

A nine-term member of the House, AuCoin will be hampered by his overdrafts in the House bank. And shortly after the November election, allegations about Packwood's treatment of women will begin a long process that ultimately results in his resignation from the Senate.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

NPR's Linton Weeks, who knows a thing or two about folks from the South, writes that Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, "has shown himself to be a musician, a writer, a stand-up comedian, a presidential candidate and a shining example of how clean living can lead to miraculous weight loss." Adds Linton: "But who knew he was a poet?"

So when the following political poem about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi popped up recently on Huckabee's Web site, we called up the folks at the Poetry Foundation.

Linton first presents the poem, then he brings in what the poetry specialists said.

Continue reading "Huckabee Rejects Pelosi W/Poem; Poetry Critics Reject Huckabee" >

California's 32nd Congressional District, just east of Los Angeles, is about 63 percent Latino, 22 percent Asian. It is the seat held since 2001 by Hilda Solis (D), now the secretary of labor. Prior to that, it was held for 18 years by Matthew Martinez, a Democrat, who lost to Solis in the 2000 primary at the age of 71 amid charges that he was ineffective and invisible.

But if anecdotal evidence is to be believed, this overwhelmingly Hispanic district may send an Asian woman, Judy Chu, on her way to Congress in Tuesday's special primary.

Continue reading "Judy Chu Has Edge In CA 32 Special Election On Tuesday" >

If Jon Huntsman is confirmed by the Senate, Gary Herbert will become the new governor of Utah.

The real message of President Obama's nominating Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman as ambassador to China?

Well, it does add to Obama's reputation as someone who wants to reach across party lines. It does, for now, remove a potential candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. And it does, pending Senate confirmation of Huntsman, make Gary Herbert the next governor of Utah.

But it also removes Huntsman as a key figure in a shrinking pool of Republican moderates.

Continue reading "Huntsman Trades WH Hopes For Great Wall; Meet Gov. Herbert" >

May 18, 1987:

Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois announces he will seek the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination.

First elected to the Senate in 1984, the bow-tie-wearing Simon will run as an unabashed liberal. Before he decided to run, he had been behind an effort to persuade Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-AR) to seek the presidency. When Bumpers said no, Simon began to think about his own candidacy.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

People are constantly asking for hints about solving the weekly ScuttleButton puzzles.

While I usually shy away from doing such things, this week I'm going to make an exception.

As many of you know, this weekend is the running of the Preakness, the second jewel in horse racing's triple crown. And that for the first time in ages, a filly is favored to win it. Well, this week's ScuttleButton has absolutely nothing to do with the Preakness or horse racing.

Hope that helps.

Don't forget the rules: Take one word (or concept) per button, add 'em up, and whaddaya get? Usually the answer to the rebus is a famous name or a common expression. And don't focus on a political answer. It doesn't necessarily have to be political, though it could be.

A correct answer chosen at random gets his or her name in this column. Personally, I can't imagine a greater honor.

You can't use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state -- you won't win without that) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

ScuttleButton is a regular Friday feature on the Political Junkie blog. Here's the answer to last week's puzzle.

And, by adding your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, you will be the first on your block to receive notice when a new puzzle goes up on the blog. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org. Or you can make sure to get an automatic RSS feed whenever a new Junkie post goes up by clicking here.

Good luck, have fun, and happy Friday!

May 15, 1984:

Sen. Gary Hart (D-CO) easily defeats former Vice President Walter Mondale in the Nebraska and Oregon primaries. Mondale, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, fails to carry a county in either state.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson finishes a poor third in both states.

Nonetheless, Mondale will win the nomination on the first ballot at the San Francisco convention.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

Didn't President Obama tell us he was going to release those torture photos? Didn't Sen. Jim Bunning hint that he wouldn't run again? Didn't Robert Gibbs tell us to turn off our cell phones at the White House briefings?

Why don't we believe anyone anymore?

In this week's episode of our "It's All Politics" podcast, we ask the tough questions. Plus: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announces for the Senate, but conservatives warn against a coronation. And a longtime Hispanic congressional district may elect an Asian-American woman next week.

And you can hear it all here:

Credits --
Nonstop talkers: Ron Elving and Ken Rudin
Producer: Evie Stone

Wanna subscribe to the podcast? You can do it through iTunes.

Wanna hear previous episodes? Click here.

Wanna be on my weekly mailing list? Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

Wanna follow my rantings on Twitter? Go to http://twitter.com/kenrudin.

Wanna send me campaign buttons to illustrate for future blog posts? Really, you should. I'm especially looking for Virginia and New Jersey items. Anyone see anything from CA 32?

And don't forget ... tomorrow is ScuttleButton day!

Katie Trzaska of De Pere, Wis., wants to know:

When was the last time someone with no judicial experience was appointed to the Supreme Court?

The last one was William Rehnquist, who was appointed to the Court by President Nixon in 1971. Rehnquist had been a law clerk to Justice Robert Jackson (in addition to being an assistant U.S. attorney general) but had no judicial experience of his own.

Another Nixon appointee was Lewis Powell, who had been president of the American Bar Association and later president of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He too lacked judicial experience.

The fact that all nine justices of the current Supreme Court were formerly appeals court judges is more of a historical anomaly than anything else. Of the nine justices named by FDR, for example, five -- Stanley Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, James Byrnes and Robert Jackson -- all lacked judicial experience.

Arkansas state Sen. Kim Hendren is, at the moment, the only Republican who has announced a challenge next year to U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D). How much longer he will be a candidate is open to speculation.

Eric Kleefeld, writing in Talking Points Memo, reports that Hendren has apologized for referring to New York Sen. Charles Schumer (D) as "that Jew" at a county Republican meeting last week.

"I don't use a teleprompter and occasionally I put my foot in my mouth," Hendren told Arkansas blogger Jason Tolbert.

"At the meeting I was attempting to explain that unlike Sen. Schumer, I believe in traditional values, like we used to see on 'The Andy Griffith Show,'" he explained. "I made the mistake of referring to Sen. Schumer as 'that Jew' and I should not have put it that way as this took away from what I was trying to say."

Late Update: Hendren gave a further apology to the Associated Press. "When I referred to him as Jewish, it wasn't because I don't like Jewish people," he said. He also added: "I shouldn't have gotten into this Jewish business because it distracts from the issue."

And here's another Hendren effort in explaining himself further, courtesy of Zack Stovall of the Arkansas News:

"I don't care if he's Jewish, Muslim, Catholic or whatever," Hendren said. "Although I said there was another Jew that I did agree with, and that was Jesus Christ."

Early hunch: If Hendren is the GOP nominee, Sen. Lincoln wins.

Yesterday's trivia question in the Political Junkie segment on Talk of the Nation centered on Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Granholm has been mentioned as a possible candidate to replace David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. The question was, who was the last person to run for governor who served on the court?

The answer: Arthur Goldberg, who was the Democratic nominee in 1970 against New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller (R).

But that led to another question. Granholm was born in Canada. She is constitutionally ineligible to be president, but what about serving on the court?

As it turns out, there are no requirements -- age, place of birth -- for a justice on the Supreme Court. According to the Web site America.gov,

Although the Constitution imposes specific age, residency and citizenship qualifications for the president of the United States and members of Congress, it sets no similar qualifications for Supreme Court justices, except that every candidate must be the president's choice and acceptable to a majority in the Senate. No prior experience as a judge, no expertise as a constitutionalist, indeed, no training in the law at all, is required.

And, in case you were wondering, the last justice born outside the U.S. was Felix Frankfurter, who was appointed to the court by President Roosevelt in 1939. Frankfurter was born in 1882 in Vienna, Austria.

May 14, 1979:

Bob Dole, the senator from Kansas and his party's nominee for vice president in 1976, declares his candidacy for the 1980 Republican presidential nomination. He is also a former GOP national chairman.

Dole received harsh reviews for his role as President Ford's running mate, where he was widely portrayed as a "hatchet man." He promises not to personally attack President Carter or any of his Republican rivals.

His 1980 bid goes nowhere. In 1988, he will run again but lose the nomination to George Bush. In 1996, he will finally win the GOP nomination, but gets trounced in November by President Bill Clinton.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

A busy Political Junkie segment on today's Talk of the Nation.

Good news for the GOP: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announces he'll run for the Senate.

But what to make of the announcement that Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) will run for a third term? Is that good news for the Democrats?

Continue reading "Today's Junkie Segment On TOTN: Crist Almighty In Florida?" >

I think it goes without saying that if the choice is among Colin Powell, Rush Limbaugh and ScuttleButton, we know which way America will turn.

We also know who this week's ScuttleButton winner is.

Continue reading "We Have A ScuttleButton Winner!" >

May 13, 1986:

For the first time in history, two women will square off against each other in a race for governor. In Nebraska, former Lincoln Mayor Helen Boosalis wins the Democratic primary, while state Treasurer Kay Orr wins on the GOP side.

Orr will defeat Boosalis in November to succeed retiring Democrat Bob Kerrey.

Later in the year, in a battle for a U.S. Senate seat in Maryland, the two major-party nominees will be women -- the second time in history that happened in a Senate race.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

May 12, 1982:

The House ethics committee announces it has begun an investigation into the activities of Rep. Fred Richmond. The Brooklyn Democrat is alleged to have asked his staff to purchase marijuana and cocaine for his personal use and to have used improper funds to help with his re-election campaign.

In August Richmond will resign his House seat and, in a deal with prosecutors, plead guilty to three counts of drug possession and income tax evasion. His seat will be won in November by Ed Towns (D), a deputy Brooklyn borough president who still holds the seat today.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

Bunning threw a change-up on Saturday night.

We admit a bit of surprise at Sen. Jim Bunning's (R-KY) announcement over the weekend that he indeed intends to run for a third term.

Given his feuds with his fellow Republicans and his relatively paltry campaign fund, the betting was that he would use Saturday night's party event to say he was retiring.

A nice piece on the race tomorrow on Morning Edition by NPR's Adam Hochberg. As it has always been the case with Bunning's political career, you can't escape his baseball connections. Here's Adam's closing graf:

Bunning HAS left open the possibility he could still decide not to run if he can't raise enough money. But the big right-hander never has been one to walk away from a challenge. As a ballplayer, he was known to start games on just two days' rest and was often among the season leaders in innings pitched. Now, as he nears the end of his political career, he seems equally reluctant to hand somebody else the ball.

Crist is expected to try again for the Senate.

By most accounts, it looks like Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) will announce his candidacy for the Senate tomorrow, in Tallahassee.

The news will not take many by surprise. Ever since Sen. Mel Martinez (R) announced in December that he would not seek re-election -- and after former Gov. Jeb Bush turned down entreaties to get him to run -- Crist has been the favorite among Republicans to hold the seat.

Continue reading "Crist Senate Run May Result In Florida Gov. Free-For-All" >

Lots more to say about the Arlen Specter saga in the latest episode of our "It's All Politics" podcast. A challenge from Tom Ridge, along with Specter's seniority, seems to have vanished. But Joe Sestak is looming in the background. Also: What did Nancy Pelosi know and when did she know it, Jeff Sessions' triumphant return to the Judiciary Committee, Bing-o in Detroit, and a final farewell to Jack Kemp.

And you can hear it all here:

Credits --
Nonstop talkers: Ron Elving and Ken Rudin
Producer: Evie Stone

Wanna subscribe to the podcast? You can do it through iTunes.

Wanna hear previous episodes? Click here.

Wanna be on my weekly mailing list? Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

Wanna follow my rantings on Twitter? Go to http://twitter.com/kenrudin.

Wanna send me campaign buttons to illustrate for future blog posts? Really, you should. I'll be your BFF.

May 11, 1976:

In the first state he has campaigned in since announcing his candidacy, Sen. Frank Church of Idaho upsets former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter in the Nebraska Democratic presidential primary.

On the GOP side, former California Gov. Ronald Reagan wins convincingly over President Gerald Ford.

Carter and Ford, however, will go on to win their parties' respective nominations.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

Three years ago, in my first review of the entertainment at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, I had the temerity to say I didn't think that Stephen Colbert was particularly funny. You can mock and ridicule President Bush all you want, and that's what a satirist should do at these events. But I always thought that some humor was needed as well, and I was hard-pressed to find much of that from Colbert that night. And I said so.

That was a big mistake on my part.

My comments were immediately met with tons of e-mail accusing me of wanting to protect the president, being part of the corporate establishment, afraid of dealing with people who spoke "truth to power," not knowing what's truly funny, or (e) all of the above.

But then, a year later, we got what we deserved. Rich Little, who hasn't been funny since the Harding Administration, was the dinner's emcee. And some of his routine was so awful I found myself even feeling nostalgic for Colbert. Or, as I wrote back then, "even the Rudin-Elving podcast would have been funnier."

Continue reading "Obama Has 'Em Rolling At White House Correspondents Dinner" >

A ScuttleButton puzzle just in time for Mother's Day!

Don't forget the rules: Take one word (or concept) per button, add 'em up, and whaddaya get? Usually the answer to the rebus is a famous name or a common expression. And don't focus on a political answer. It doesn't necessarily have to be political, though it could be.

A correct answer chosen at random gets his or her name in this column. Personally, I can't imagine a greater honor.

You can't use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state -- you won't win without that) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

ScuttleButton is a regular Friday feature on the Political Junkie blog. Here's the answer to last week's puzzle.

And, by adding your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, you will be the first on your block to receive notice when a new puzzle goes up on the blog. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org. Or you can make sure to get an automatic RSS feed whenever a new Junkie post goes up by clicking here.

Good luck, have fun, and happy Friday! And Happy Mother's Day!

May 8, 1975:

Rep. Andrew Hinshaw (R-CA) is indicted on 12 counts of bribery, embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds. The charges stem from actions he allegedly took prior to coming to Congress, when he was Orange County assessor.

Hinshaw was first elected to Congress in 1972 and easily re-elected two years later. But the indictments end his political career. He will appear on the June 1976 primary ballot but not seriously campaign for the nomination, which will go to state Rep. Robert Badham.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

... But here tomorrow.

No Political Junkie today.

We return tomorrow with the new podcast, the new yakking, and the new ScuttleButton puzzle.

May 7, 1968:

Alabama's Lurleen Wallace (D), who ran for governor and won in 1966 as a surrogate for her husband, George -- who was barred by state law from seeking re-election -- dies of cancer. She was 41 years old, and her death came as George Wallace was pursuing his third-party presidential bid.

Mrs. Wallace, in fact, was already suffering from cancer when she won the governorship in '66. Her death elevates Lt. Gov. Albert Brewer (D) to the governorship. Brewer, a supporter of George Wallace's White House plans, will clash with him in a bitter and ugly 1970 primary when Brewer decides to seek a full term and Wallace wants to return as governor.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

This is one of those posts where I'm having trouble coming to a conclusion. I need your help.

There seems to be a backlash building against Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC), who has written a tell-all book (and hit the TV talk-show circuit to expand on it) about her reaction to the news that her husband was having an affair during his 2008 presidential bid.

Since her cancer returned in 2007, Elizabeth Edwards has become one of the nation's most admired and sympathetic people. Given the dire prognosis of her illness, her decision to go along with her husband's second White House bid was hotly debated at the time.

Continue reading "Should We Blame Elizabeth Edwards For Husband John's Sins?" >

While the retirement of David Souter gives President Obama his first opportunity to shape the Supreme Court, it also gives Republicans an opportunity to decide how they intend to respond and whether their diminished numbers in the Senate can still make them effective.

There's also speculation that Arlen Specter could prove to be as much of a headache to his now-fellow Democrats than he was to his former Republican colleagues.

And there's a new mayor in Detroit.

All this in today's Political Junkie segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation.

Continue reading "Today On TOTN: Souter, Sessions, Specter & Swish!" >

Dave Bing, the Hall of Fame basketball great who spent most of his career with the Pistons, was elected mayor of Detroit yesterday.

With 100 percent of the vote in, Bing received 49,054 votes (52.3%) to 44,770 votes (47.7%) for Kenneth Cockrel Jr., who had been serving as acting mayor since the resignation of scandal-tarred Kwame Kilpatrick.

Continue reading "Hoopla In Detroit: Dave Bing Is Elected Mayor" >

May 6, 1972:

As Jesse Helms was winning on the GOP side, Rep. Galifianakis was en route to toppling Sen. Jordan in Dem primary. But he needed 2 buttons to do it.

Conservative broadcaster Jesse Helms, a former Democrat, makes his first bid for elective office a success, easily winning the three-way Republican Senate primary in North Carolina.

It is more complicated on the Democratic side, where Sen. B. Everett Jordan is outpolled by Rep. Nick Galifianakis, but neither candidate receives the required majority to avoid a runoff. Galifianakis, whose name is so long he needed two buttons to spell it out, said Jordan was too conservative and out of touch for N.C., but what probably aided him were voter concerns over Jordan's age (75) and health. The two Democrats will go into a June 3 primary runoff, which Galifianakis will win.

In November, Helms will defeat Galifianakis, becoming the first popularly elected Republican senator from North Carolina in history. He will be re-elected four times before retiring in 2002.

Asked today about the timetable for a Supreme Court nomination, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, "It's not going to happen this week."

Speculation has been rife about President Obama's choice to succeed retiring Associate Justice David Souter, who announced his decision last week. Much of the punditry has been focused on whether Obama will name a woman to the court. There is no shortage of suggested names, but we won't list them here because we are in the middle of running our "name the nominee and you can win a Nixon bumper sticker" contest. But many signs are pointing to its being a woman.

In the lead-up to its passage by Congress in 1919 and ratification by the states in 1920, proponents of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution carried signs and wore buttons that read, "Votes for Women." If a woman is named to replace Souter, she will be the third. Which brings us to the subject of "Votes Against Women" -- the dissenting Senate votes against the two female justices who have served on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sandra Day O'Connor (nominated by Reagan; confirmed by Senate 99-0 on 9/21/81).

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (nominated by Clinton; confirmed by Senate 96-3 on 8/3/93). Voting no: (3 Republicans) -- Helms (NC), Nickles (OK), Smith (NH).

And while this may be a case of apples and oranges, there have been a total of two African-Americans nominated to the court in history, and both received far more negative votes. Thurgood Marshall, nominated by President Johnson in 1967, had 11 senators voting against him (and an additional 20 abstaining from voting altogether). Clarence Thomas, the choice of the first President Bush in 1991, barely squeaked by on a 52-48 vote.

Trivia: Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) is the only senator to vote against both Marshall and Thomas.

Some good news for a change: More people are catching ScuttleButton fever than the swine flu.

The fever, in fact, seems to be spreading. In e-mails, on Twitter, and in a note attached to a rock thrown through my window, people are telling me that their lives have been taken over by a need to solve the puzzle before they can get things done around the house. One e-mail sent early Saturday morning -- at 3:10 a.m.! -- was from someone who said they could finally go to sleep because they figured out the answer.

Continue reading "We Have A ScuttleButton Winner!" >

With Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic Party, the new ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee is Jeff Sessions of Alabama. In a deal worked out yesterday by Senate Republicans, Sessions will be the ranking GOPer through 2010, when Charles Grassley of Iowa will assume the post.

Sessions will play a key role in formulating the GOP strategy on whomever President Obama names to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. A strong conservative, Sessions' ideology is nothing like the man he replaces, Pennsylvania's Specter.

Sessions, of course, has a long history with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Continue reading "Specter Helped Defeat Sessions In 1986 Judiciary Vote" >

May 5, 1970:

In a collision between two of Ohio's top Republicans, Rep. Robert Taft Jr. narrowly defeats term-limited Gov. James Rhodes in the GOP primary for an open Senate seat. The election comes one day after Rhodes sent National Guard troops to Kent State University to quell a student uprising in the wake of the incursion into Cambodia. Four students were killed by troops at Kent State.

In another close contest, on the Democratic side, Howard Metzenbaum, an ally of retiring Sen. Stephen Young, defeats former astronaut John Glenn. Glenn was the celebrity and hero, but Metzenbaum outspent and outworked him. Six years earlier, Glenn had sought to run against Young but suffered an ear injury in a bathroom fall.

In the general election in November, Taft will defeat Metzenbaum.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

It's hard to make the case that anyone can turn around the image of Detroit, at least in the short run.

But the case can also be made that, after the embarrassment of Kwame Kilpatrick, it can only get better.

Two candidates are running in tomorrow's special election hoping to create a new Detroit.

Kilpatrick, of course, was the two-term mayor who was forced out following published text messages between him and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty, that seemed to assert what they both had denied, under oath: that they were having an affair.

The view here is that the private lives of politicians should, for the most part, be off-limits. In fact, allegations aimed at Kirkpatrick went far beyond the affair. But apparently Kilpatrick used city funds to facilitate their relationship and used city officials to cover up the affair. In March of 2008, Kilpatrick and Beatty were hit with a 12-count of indictment, charging perjury and obstruction of justice. That same month, the City Council, by a vote of 7-1, passed a nonbinding resolution calling on the mayor to resign.

In September, after months of denials, Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to two felony counts, resigned as mayor and briefly served time in prison.

He was succeeded as mayor by Kenneth Cockrel, the City Council president. Cockrel faces businessman Dave Bing, the former NBA great with the Pistons, in Tuesday's nonpartisan runoff election. Cockrel is thought to have a slight edge, while Bing, more of a political outsider, has been endorsed by the Detroit News and the Free-Press. In the initial, multicandidate primary in February, Bing led Cockrel by about 2,000 votes.

Jack Kemp's career spanned from quarterback to politics.

 

I was always of two minds when it came to Jack Kemp. He was personable and unfailingly optimistic. And he was convinced that his philosophy of supply-side economics was the right way to go, both for the party and, more important, the country.

Continue reading "Memories Of Jack Kemp" >

May 4, 1953:

Former Sen. Robert F. Wagner Sr. (D-NY), who served from 1926 until resigning in 1949 because of ill health, and who is best known for the Wagner National Labor Relations Act in 1935 during the New Deal, dies at 75.

His son, Robert Jr., the Manhattan borough president, will be elected mayor of New York City later this year.

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.

Jack Kemp, the former conservative representative from western New York who hoped to succeed his hero, Ronald Reagan, as president in 1988, and who reappeared as a candidate as the Republican vice presidential running mate in 1996, has died. He was 73 and had been suffering from cancer.

Kemp was an NFL quarterback for the San Diego Chargers and later the Buffalo Bills. When he retired, he decided to run for the congressional seat in Buffalo vacated in 1970 by Richard "Max" McCarthy, who was seeking the Democratic Senate nomination. Kemp won the seat and held it until 1988, when he made a bid for the Republican presidential nomination. He ran as the "heir" to the Reagan Revolution, but as a candidate he failed to make a difference. He was out of the race by March, shortly after Super Tuesday. He could have gone back to New York and defended his House seat but decided instead to retire.

Meanwhile, the presidential nomination, and the election, was won by then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, who later named Kemp to the Cabinet as his secretary of housing and urban development.

In 1996, Bob Dole selected him as his running mate. The Dole-Kemp ticket lost to Democratic incumbents Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

In January of this year, Kemp disclosed he had cancer.

We had one contest, to predict the next secretary of health and human services secretary, following the withdrawal of Tom Daschle. That one was won by Cheryl Weller of West Orange, N.J., who wound up with a Nixon campaign button from 1968.

We had another contest, to guess the Senate confirmation vote for Sebelius at HHS. No one correctly got that one.

We're trying again. Who will President Obama nominate to replace the retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter? The first correct answer will win a Nixon's The One bumper sticker from that '68 campaign. Impress your friends when you affix it to your car!

But first send in your prediction to politicaljunkie@npr.org. First one wins.

President Obama, in a surprise visit to the White House briefing room as press secretary Robert Gibbs was, well, briefing the press, confirmed what everyone had already known: that Supreme Court Justice David Souter will leave at the end of June, when the current term concludes.

The president said he was "incredibly grateful" for Souter's service, praising the 69-year old justice as "fair minded" and "independent," and said he was known for his "integrity, equanimity and compassion."

Obama said he would consult with members of both parties, across the political spectrum, in deciding on a successor. He said that he hoped to have a new justice sworn in by the first Monday in October -- when the new court term begins.

The surprising, troubling, enchanting and humbling edition of the "It's All Politics" podcast is up, and just in time: The president celebrates his 100 days with a news conference, Arlen Specter celebrates his switch to the Democratic Party by voting against the Obama budget, and one person is helped by the swine flu outbreak: Kathleen Sebelius.

And you can hear it all here:

Credits --
Nonstop talkers: Ron Elving and Ken Rudin
Producer: Evie Stone

Wanna subscribe to the podcast? You can do it through iTunes.

Wanna hear previous episodes? Click here.

Wanna be on my weekly mailing list? Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org.

Wanna follow my rantings on Twitter? Go to http://twitter.com/kenrudin.

Wanna send me campaign buttons to illustrate for future blog posts? Really, you should. I'll be your BFF.

 

Well, you can't say that ScuttleButton is not topical.

Last week, we used a Jane Harman button in the puzzle, just as the California congresswoman was caught up in a controversy over wiretaps.

Today, there is a David Souter button in the mix.

Don't forget the rules: Take one word (or concept) per button, add 'em up, and whaddaya get? Usually the answer to the rebus is a famous name or a common expression. And don't focus on a political answer. It doesn't necessarily have to be political, though it could be.

A correct answer chosen at random gets his or her name in this column. Personally, I can't imagine a greater honor.

You can't use the comments box at the bottom of the page for your answer. Send submission (plus your name and city/state -- you won't win without that) to politicaljunkie@npr.org.

ScuttleButton is a regular Friday feature on the Political Junkie blog. Here's the answer to last week's puzzle.

And, by adding your name to the Political Junkie mailing list, you will be the first on your block to receive notice when a new puzzle goes up on the blog. Sign up at politicaljunkie@npr.org. Or you can make sure to get an automatic RSS feed whenever a new Junkie post goes up by clicking here.

Good luck, have fun, and happy Friday!

Initially, it was the left that had reservations about a Justice Souter.

It seems pretty hard to believe now, but back in 1990, when President George Bush nominated David Souter to be an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, it was the left that was most apprehensive and the right that was excited, happily so.

The president's nomination was a "home run," gushed then-White House Chief of Staff John Sununu. Conservatives were thrilled. The end to legal abortion was in the foreseeable future, both sides thought.

And when the Senate confirmed Souter on Oct. 2 that year, by an overwhelming 90-9 tally, the opposition came from liberals: Brock Adams (WA), Daniel Akaka (HI), Bill Bradley (NJ), Quentin Burdick (ND), Alan Cranston (CA), Ted Kennedy (MA), John Kerry (MA), Frank Lautenberg (NJ) and Barbara Mikulski (MD).

But between his votes on affirming the Roe decision on abortion and dissenting in the Bush v. Gore case in 2000, Souter became a reliable liberal vote on the court.

His departure, whenever it comes, is not likely to alter the ideological makeup of the court. In fact, he may even be succeeded by someone with even more progressive credentials. Tops on the list appear to be Solicitor General Elena Kagan and federal appeals court judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Wood.

May 1, 1952:

 

Sen. Brien McMahon of Connecticut announces his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

A self-described "liberal Democrat" and a staunch supporter of President Truman's foreign policy, McMahon was the author of the 1946 Atomic Energy Control Act.

McMahon was first elected to the Senate in 1944 and won a second term in 1950. He died in office in 1952. In the special election held that year to succeed him, Prescott Bush (R) -- father and grandfather of future presidents -- defeated Rep. Abraham Ribicoff (D).

Today in Campaign History is a daily feature on Political Junkie.