Democrats Pacified

After days of speculating and pontificating by talking heads all over Washington, we finally have a nominee to Replace Justice Sandra Day O’Conner on the Supreme Court. I honestly don’t know much about the man, but from what I have read in the last two days, I believe he is a true conservative. I have been waiting for the Democrats to unleash their unhinged rhetoric which is the norm these days, but, so far, there has not been too much acrimony. Perhaps they do not know much about Judge Roberts either. Even Howard Dean seems a bit passive.

Can Roberts Abandon Partisan Streak?

Faced with a growing scandal surrounding the involvement of Deputy White House chief of Staff Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff Lewis Libby in the leaking the identity of a covert CIA operative, President Bush announced his nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court late this evening.

I can’t help but laugh at the need to bring Karl Rove into this.

"It is disappointing that when President Bush had the chance to bring the country together, he instead turned to a nominee who may have impressive legal credentials, but also has sharp partisan credentials that cannot be ignored."

Translation: He’s not a lib and we don’t like him. Dean seems almost sad. In addition, it appears that he has taken lessons from Tom Daschle. I was almost expecting to see the word ‘saddened’ somewhere.

"Democrats take very seriously the responsibility to protect the individual rights of all Americans and are committed to ensuring that ideological judicial activists are not appointed to the Supreme Court.”

That statement is almost laughable. The Kelo decision proved that liberal justices have anything but ‘individual rights’ in mind. I can’t tell if these statements are a surrender or a prelude to nastier rhetoric as Democrats research any angle to grandstand over John Roberts' appointment.

Overall, it seems that the Democrats have been essentially neutered.

Bush Nominee Pays Visit to Key Senators

"No one is entitled to a free pass to a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court," - Patrick Leahy

I know we have a lot of lobbyists around, but a payoff for a vote? Why I never!

"Do I believe this is a filibuster-able nominee? The answer would be no, not at this time," – Dianne Feinstein

Filibuster-able? Now that’s a head-scratcher. And I don’t mean the word itself, though Feinstein is certainly lucky that the AP inserted that hyphen. Dems have found ways to filibuster just about everyone nominated by Bush, at their own expense of course. I have no doubt that they will at least bounce the idea around.

"The key question is whether he will uphold core constitutional and statutory principles," – Ted Kennedy

That’s it? Weak.

"We have right now the most activist Supreme Court I've seen in my lifetime. ... So I'm going to ask him are you going to be part of that same activist coalition, overturning settled law, rewriting the law yourself? And, among those, of course, is going to be Roe v. Wade," – Patrick Leahy again

I assume he is referring to Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

I must say that Bush has done a great job with this nomination, assuming Roberts doesn’t turn into another David Souter. Bush has Harry Reid opining about the ‘constitutional mainstream’ whatever that is. In any case, when Dirty Harry steps up to defend the Constitution, that is a subtle admission of defeat. I must confess that part of me hopes that the libs pick up the volume a bit. After all, I need material, and what good are a bunch of agreeable idiots in that respect.

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