"Why DIDN'T Bush nomiate one of the more popular, well known conservatives to be his Supreme Court nominee?"
Taht's exactly what it comes down to for me. And why I feel it's more than a little arrogant for the RNC'ers to be bashing conservatives as "sexist and elitist" without giving us sufficient reasoning behind this.
Well, I don't think the RNC can come right out and say, we've got a bunch of RINO's and lily livered Republicans in the Senate.
But everybody knows the President couldn't get his main picks through the Senate (Estrada) and had to eventually recess appoint Bolton to the UN...and it wasn't because of the Dems, but because many of the Republicans don't have a spine.
So why should we think the President should be able to push through a controversial (to the Dems that is, but also to folks like Specter or Warner) SC nominee.