Both sides looking ahead to next battle for the court

[davidinalameda]

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/12742064.htm

With John Roberts on course to be confirmed this week as the nation's 17th chief justice, conservatives and liberals alike are turning their attention to the next fight - over a successor to retiring Associate Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Roberts, nominated by President Bush after the Sept. 3 death of William Rehnquist, should be confirmed by a comfortable margin when his nomination comes to the Senate floor this week. Even Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean conceded in an e-mail to party activists Friday that "it is obvious that the Republican-controlled Senate will confirm" him.

But with Bush soon expected to name a replacement for O'Connor, the same battle lines in the Roberts fight are forming again, the most aggressive, so far, being the conservative activists who find Roberts unsettling.

[BillZBubb]

1. Next battle? I haven't seen the Dems put up the first one.

So far, Bush has gotten everything he wanted without so much as a serious peep from our side.

[PATRICK]

2. I keep thinking

it is the comfort of rationalization and evasion of responsibility. After all, what better excuse should the Dems "rise again" than to let the SCOTUS derail all their legislation so that no of it will be their fault or their responsibility. This how ducking lasts a lifetime and beyond.

Item #1 and it's an oldie continually reaffirmed: NO Bush appointment ahas legitimately served the nation or met the standards of competence and dedication to the national task.

Item #2. A Bush SCOTUS means no election is really secure as far as that nagging little progressive voice in the mind of every Dem is concerned.

Item# 3. One way reciprocity is how to describe this noble deference to the game at the moment. You get nothing(and worse) for something(everything) for Bush.

Item #4. WHAT exactly ARE you going to lose by picking any discarded principle out of a hat to cast a futile vote against an extremely probable mistake? Is someone in your district going to stomp on his straw party hat and switch parties? Are swing voters staying up at nights admiring the picture of Roberts hanging on their wall? Are the GOP reps going to stop picking on you and treat you with respect? Is your conscience going to go away or forget your imprimatur on all the horrors to come?

They might as well take a vacation and not vote at all. Maybe they think that would be an even better idea- if they dared.

I'll say it again. Just because they either didn't or couldn't find the dirt, no way is Bush going to be satisfied with less than a 100% tool. START with that as a given, not giving deference to an abused and vanishing mythos of fairness. No instead they tried to flush out the issue stands in a hopelessly naive, watered down failure of a confirmation hearing. And the GOP gets points for defeating the idea of
vetting the Mystery Judge and making the Dems look like fools they plainly settled on being.