There’s this, ummm…, mature woman who sometimes uses the same parking lot I do who has her car all done up with bumper stickers (Let’s Not Elect Him Again in 2004, Quit Bitching and Start a Revolution, Developers – Go Build in HELL!, US Troops Out of the Middle East, Think Global – Act Local and a few others I can’t recall) who might peg the number of right wing extremists in the Senate a bit north of 78.

To quote a man who I’m glad will never be president: Bring. It. On.

One of the major propaganda lines from the dem’s and many of the opposition pundits is that President Bush is picking “right wing idealogues”. Yet I do not hear the same phrase attached to Ginsgurg, who was given a near majority bi-partisan approval vote. Her “right kind of woman” phrase coupled with her assertion that her kind of woman is for Human rights and the wrong kind of woman, one who dares to think for themselves and is conservative, is against human rights. This is the worse kind of partisan dogma and the fact that a Supreme Court Justice put herself so openly in the political dogfight, against all tradition, shows that she is a idealogue yet that phrase in never attached to her. Ginsburg has the right to say whatever she wants and the dem’s can vote anyway they want but they can’t claim that they are not totally politicizing the selection of judges and that they are not using specific litmus tests regarding who they vote for. Yet just today, Sen. Boxer, in a response to a question from Chris Matthew’s as to whether the dem’s had set pre-approval of Roe v Wade as a litmus test said, “No, of corse not.” Many on this site may agree with doing that but the bald faced dishonesty by Boxer and many of her like minded colleagues is stunning.

Kevin Peters

OK: and as to listening to NPR–there are simply NO other sources of news in Grant Couunty.

The Dems have given President Bush no reason not to pick Brown or Garza. By making the mistake of going after Roberts with charges of racism and other slanders with the slimmest of facts9a twenty year old memo with the phrase illegal amigo?) they have pleased their base but Roberts made them look the fool. Since it is apparent that any conservative that Bush picks will be tarred as a combonation of Jesse Helms and McCarthy he has no reason to pick a “moderate.”

If the Dems had been smart they would have let Roberts pass without the overheated partisan attack. They knew that they could not fillibuster him and they knew that he was going to sit on the court. When they go after the Bush pick with all the same charges that they lobbed at Roberts, and the public did not buy their slime attack, the dems will have a serious Boy Who Cried Wolf problem.

Bush should pick Brown and force the White members of the Senate to charge her with not being the right kind of African American or the right kind of female. The republican’s will take all the speech’s and op-ed pieces that slammed bush for not picking a female when he selected roberts and read them back to them. They can point out the shallow nature of those charges and point out that “a woman” really meant a liberal. And slightly off topic, how did Ginsburg get away with her blantant political meddling when she claimed that it should be a woman, but “not just any woman.” If she wants to campaign for Senate and get involved in the selection of SCOTUS picks she should resign her spot on the Supreme Court.

If the dem’s reject Brown, then Bush should follow with Garza. Let the Dem’s reject high quality judges from the African American and Hispanic communities and then go out on the campaign trail and claim that they are champions of the minority.

Kevin Peters

As the Chicago Trib put it:

“Will [Roberts] receive overwhelming approval from members of both parties, as did President Bill Clinton’s nominees to the high court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer? Or are we in a zone of desperation where it is more important for Democrats to placate the interest groups now demanding that they vote against Roberts?

“How senators react to that pressure will demonstrate how they’re likely to treat Bush’s nominee for the O’Connor seat. Can he or she be evaluated in fairness? Or is this game rigged?”

Precisely, the ideological war will almost certainly be ratcheted up with renewed fervor with the advent of the second nomination. Ginsburg and Breyer each were nominated in relatively quick succession as well (’93 and ’94 respectively), and they each received advise and consent reviews, as reflected in their votes.

I think Sen Obama has enough class and intelligence not to pursue that line of reasoning…he will let Chuck Schumer make a fool out himself instead. Obama is much smoother then Lani Guenier, who was actually Jewish ( because her mother was) who was into faux authenticity.

OK OK–I am on for a major fight–I talked myself into it with your prodding.