And if Bush had done that, and all the Rhinos and moderate mccainites didn't have the will to back a Janice Rogers Brown, and she or Luddig lost the nomination, would that stand on principle to pick a fight still be a great idea? That's how we got kennedy and souter in the first place remember????? The result is the important thing here, not the means by which the result is accomplished. If 20 years from now, she's considered to be a strong conservative who always found with Scalia and Thomas, isn't that what matters? Janice Rogers Brown by the way is a libertarian, and has some funny ideas about some things, so I wouldn't necessarily bank on the idea that she would be a female version of Clarence Thomas.
I would rather have a libertarian on the Supreme Court than a politician any day of the week.