Chicago Tribune has a story today about liberal Republicans joining with some Democrats to express their views on a proper Supreme Court nominee.

According to the story, as a result of opposition from liberal Republicans, Edith Jones is reported to be "no longer under serious" consideration for the vacancy.

As for the idea expressed in the article that the President should "appoint someone like O'Connor," I'm not sure that can actually be done. As one of my colleagues observed to me one day, "The problem with pragmatists is that every one is different," so it's not really clear that you can aim for someone "like O'Connor." Moreover, as Charles Krauthammer noted in his column on O'Connor, the problem with O'Connor's pragmatism was that you could never be quite sure what factors she would consider to be relevant or outcome-determinant in any given case. In other words, the next pragmatist could very well weigh every factor completely differently from O'Connor and have everything come out with a reverse result.