Well, it's official. Bush is nominating Judge John Roberts of the D.C. Court of Appeals to fill the O'Connor vacancy on the Supreme Court. He's a smart choice for Bush. He's going to be conservative enough to appease the Republican base -- a former Rehnquist clerk, Reagan Justice Department official, etc. -- and yet the fact that he's only been on the Circuit Court for 20 months gives the opposition little insight into his mind.
All in all, I suspect he'll be confirmed. I really doubt we'll see a filibuster here since (a) Roberts isn't nearly as right-wing as some of the other contenders and (b) the seven moderate Democrats who brokered the last judicial compromise will have little political cover here to claim there are "extraordinary circumstances" to warrant the filibuster. The Republicans already have 55 votes in the Senate, and if they can just get five Democrats to side with them, there's absolutely nothing that can be done to prevent him from reaching the floor and getting on the bench.
If the Democrats are smart, they'll put up some tough but fair questions at the Judiciary Committee hearings, but ultimately let the nomination sail right through. The right-wing media is already making noise about the fact that Roberts was first denied a spot on the bench by the mean ol' Democrats in '92, and then had to wait two years to get onto the bench after being renominated in '01. They're clearly priming the fairness issue they so love. (Assuming it's a conservative who's been treated unfairly. Liberals can suck it -- right, Orrin?)
Anyway, given the inevitability of his nomination, it would be shrewd for the Senate Democrats just to go through the motions, asking tough questions and voting their consciences, without resorting to anything that even remotely resembles a delaying tactic. If Roberts is going to be confirmed anyway, the sight of the right's favorite punching bags -- Sens. Kennedy, Leahy, Durbin, Feinstein, and Schumer, all of whom are on the SJC -- tearing into him is only going to rally the base behind Bush. If they treat him fairly, it'll make all the right-wing predictions about "Democratic obstructionism" look overblown.
It'll also let the news cycle get right back to Rovegate.
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Roberts seems to be OK, except that he's 50. He'll be presiding forever!
They need to hurry up and confirm him, cuz the press will abandon Rove if that blond hair on the duct tape in Aruba turns out to belong to the missing white girl.
Yeah, he'll be there until 2035. But by that time we'll be more worried about our new alien overlords.
Otto, your analysis is keen for a bus driver.
The tape deck on the bus broke, so I've been listening to a lot of NPR.
I for one say, "all hail our new alien overlords."
whoa there Otto, you used the terms "s mart" and "shrewd" while referring to Dems, right there I think you are far off the mark ... I did hear, however, that the alien overlords were going to loosely resemble hot blonde models and wear the skimpiest of "uniforms" (oddly enough almost authentic school girl uniforms but cut up all sluty, like britney used to wear before she let the world know how stupid she really is and what white trash does when it gets rich and famous...) - as such I am really looking forward to our new alien overlord leaders....oh, and of course the return of Rovegate and the suspense filled minutiae of missing white girls
From the repub perspective, this is a great move long term and a horrible one short term.
A relatively non-confrontational hearing process will ensure conservative hegemony of the court for the next 50 years, but the talking heads will not be able to occupy themselves for the next three months talking about this alone. Their attention will wander back to Rove sooner or later.
Should've gone with batshit crazy.
As the most conservative Dem here, I will blaspheme. I think this appointment is a credit to Bush. He did the right thing, this seems to be a middle of the road appointment.
Word has it the pro-life folks are calling this a tragedy - generally, if you are pissing off both sides, you are probably doing your job well.
StudioDave apparently hangs out with a different antichoice crowd than I do:
"A culture of life can never be built as long as Roe v. Wade is the law of the land," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.
"We appreciate President Bush being a man of his word by appointing a judge that will respect the Right to Life acknowledged by our nation's founding documents," said Newman. "We pray that Roberts will be swiftly confirmed."
My fault. I got this inforation from CNN, which is apparently not a news source after all.
If anyone knows anyone who works there tell them to suck it.
The Religious Right is decidedly thrilled over the nomination. I'm not really sure what tea leaves they're reading.
Nice post up over at Kos:
Read it here.
I just don't get it. Why is the religious Right so ecstatic? What do they know that we don't? As far as we know, this is a man with very little history to judge. Dems can't tell which way he'll end up. The evangelists haven't been shy about voicing displeasure with Bush in the past, so why not now? Their rallying call has been "No More Souter", referring to the surprise that Souter turned out to have more liberal leanings than suspected. How do they know Roberts won't do the same?
That worries me - like there's something right in front of us but we can't see it. I'm actually relatively relieved that Roberts is nominated, considering what horror film reject we might have gotten. I just don't know what the angle is, unless Bush is honestly going for reconciliation. Otto, maybe the aliens have already taken over?
I'm not sure about the aliens, Scott, but I'm also worried about the gleeful enthusiasm we're seeing from the Religious Right. To me, this guy looks a lot like Souter, or at least Kennedy, but they're convinced he's the second coming of Fat Tony.
But again, given the other choices we could be confronted with -- who would also likely make it through -- Roberts doesn't seem too bad. If I were a simple-minded idiot, I might call that "the soft bigotry of low expectations."
Has anybody heard of Robert's French fry past? This is the stuff that could keep Rovegate off the frontpage for at least a day and a half!!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050720/ap_on_go_su_co/roberts_french_fry
I always wondered why the Metro was so clean. Here in New York, you pretty much have to drop trou and take a poop on the platform to get looked at twice.
And some times, they don't look at me at all.
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