Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Bush Nominates Judge John Roberts to Supreme Court

The nomination of US Court of Appeals (Washington DC) Judge John Roberts to the Supreme Court this evening appears to have pleased most of the conservative pundits. Hugh Hewitt calls the nomination a "home run." One of his talk-show guests one-upped him by calling the nomination a "grand slam."

Personally, I know nothing about Judge Roberts except what I am reading on the internet. I do know that there were many conservatives who were floating Roberts' name as a nominee nearly two years ago. On the other hand, I expect the Democrats to at least symbolically oppose his nomination with as much grilling and hand-wringing as possible....SHORT OF A FILIBUSTER!

Yes, short of a filibuster. Based on what I have read this evening, I do not believe that the Democrats will be willing to risk losing everything by detonating their own "nuclear option" over Judge Roberts. It appears that any opposition to this nominee will prove to be a lost cause from the beginning. It would be far more likely to find the Democrats letting this one ride and save their "big guns" for Rehnquist replacement and/or the appointment of someone like Clarence Thomas as Chief Justice.

Even so, over the next few weeks we will all learn more about this man than we have any real need to know. Will there be pubic hairs on his Coke cans? Playboy magazines on his coffee table? Or will he turn out to be a church-going Christian? An Atlanta Braves fan? Or, horror of horrors, perhaps it is discovered that he once tipped a public restroom attendant in Dallas who turned out to have been an illegal alien from Mexico....or, even worse....from Saudi Arabia!

I have already read criticisms based on opinions he wrote in his law school term papers! Wow! Wait until we hear from his preschool teacher who will vaguely remember that he might have made a little girl cry by tickling her during naptime.

If that won't disqualify him from the Supreme Court, what will?