Judge Roberts Out of the Frying Pan

US Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee John Roberts completed his pre-confirmation Senate Judiciary Committee grilling today.

To no one's surprise, Judge Roberts did not choke, faint, scream, swear, vow to overturn Roe v. Wade, kick a dog or strangle a single Senator.

In short, Committee Democrats were reduced to misrepresenting Major League Baseball's strike zone, croaking over "hapless toads," mispronouncing the word "Viejo" as "Viheo" and finding 1001 ways to slip the word "amigos" into a sentence.

For their part, on the other side of the aisle, Republican Senators and conservative pundits spent today biting their tongues and striving mightily to avoid using the phrase "slam dunk" in any of their public comments and interview statements.

By all accounts, including those printed in the New York Times and the Washington Post, Judge Roberts did done real good and is almost certain to be a "shoe in" when the entire Senate votes on his confirmation next week.

President Bush's next nominee, the one who will replace Sandra Day O'Conner on the High Court, will probably not have the luxury of sitting in the frying pan as Roberts did this past week.

It is absolutely, incontrovertibly, without any doubt whatsoever certain, that Democrats will throw the next nominee directly into the fire.

Then again, I could be wrong,