UPDATED: McKenna underscores importance of McCain success in Washington for judges, Rossi

By Bryan Bissell, PolitickerWA.com Reporter

MINNEAPOLIS - Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna spoke at the Republican delegation breakfast this morning and gave an address focusing on the need to elect presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain on the grounds that the next president will likely be able to select at least one Supreme Court justice.

"Don't you just love events that are emceed by Ralph Munro?" McKenna asked the crowd to start his speech, referring to the former Secretary of State who has been running the delegate meetings every day with humor and good spirit.

McKenna then switched gears, talking about seeing people wearing buttons at the convention hall last night celebrating President George W. Bush's selection of Justices Samuel Alito and John Roberts to the Supreme Court. He called those buttons "absolutely right".

"He made two outstanding picks," McKenna said of the president, "and it makes an enormous difference."

The difference he referred to was the court's typical 5-4 split with the alternating ideology of Justice Anthony Kennedy. The attorney general predicted that Justice John Paul Stevens, at age 87, was very likely to leave the court during the next president's tenure

"You get another Alito-Roberts type in there, that ain't gonna happen anymore", he said of Justice Stevens' typically liberal vote and Justice Kennedy's swing vote altering the Court's opinion between liberal and conservative decisions.

"In contrast, think of who Barack Obama is likely to appoint of the Supreme Court," McKenna proposed, and when the crowd scoffed he answered, "Enough said."

McKenna predicted that the Democratic Party would be working incredibly hard this cycle to elect Obama, saying that "they have an inferiority complex because they've been losing," though he acknowledged that it is very rare for one party to hold the office of the presidency for more than eight consecutive years.

"It is just about turnout," he said, and brought up the Democrats fundraising advantage this time around. "We don't have that kind of budget. We have got to get out there and do it the way we have always done it, with a lot of hard work."

Finally McKenna talked about the coattail effects of the McCain-Palin ticket, and suggested it had a crucial relationship to gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi's chances.

"If he carries it, Dino wins," McKenna said of McCain, and urged the delegates to work hard to at least keep the presidential vote close. "If he fails to carry it by ten or twelve points, Dino doesn't win."

UPDATE: Rob McKenna's campaign wishes to clarify the point made at the bottom of the article which, from watching it live, was the obvious intent. See below from McKenna spokesman Adam Faber:

"McKenna's point at the breakfast this morning is that it would be very difficult for Rossi to win if McCain loses Washington by a dozen points. A gap that large would show a turnout problem for Republicans. One need only go back to our last presidential election to see that a Republican gubernatorial candidate can run far ahead of the presidential candidate in this state. Bush lost Washington by 7.2 points while Rossi and Gregoire essentially tied."

FOR FULL CONVENTION COVERAGE from PolitickerWA.com click here.

Bryan Bissell is a PolitickerWA.com Reporter and can be reached via email at noreply@politicker.com.

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