SAUNDERS: George Bush's Supreme pick

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 7/21/5 | Debra J. Saunders

[SmithL]

IT LOOKS AS IF all the interests groups and nattering nabobs outside the White House have conspired to make placing his first U.S. Supreme Court nominee on the bench easy for President Bush.

The left certainly has done its part.

For five years, Senate Democrats on the far left have hurled invective at hot-button conservatives -- especially female and minority judges. They've only got so much mud left -- and they can't afford to waste it.

Nonetheless, they will hurl more at Bush nominee John G. Roberts Jr. and waste it. It's the only play they know.

Moveon.org quickly dismissed Roberts as a "right-wing lawyer and corporate lobbyist," who should not be confirmed. That's the best that they can do: Attack Roberts for being conservative and working for a D.C. law firm.

Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal was reduced to complaining that she is "dismayed" Bush nominated a man, and demanding that the Senate not confirm Roberts unless he promises not to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

Push that line, and the White House can push back. Abortion rights' advocates want more than support for Roe -- they want a pledge to find that the U.S. Constitution reserves the right for 15-year-olds to get abortions behind their parents' backs. Not much support for that.

Senate moderates cinched the Roberts nomination in May. That's when the so-called Gang of 14 -- seven GOP and seven Democratic senators -- announced that they would not go along with judicial filibusters. They promised to engage in this stalling tactic -- that prevents a full vote -- only under "extraordinary circumstances."

Translation: They will vote for a solid conservative who is not overly ideological.

[SmithL]

A good read.

[frogjerk]

This is merely the beginning. The DIMs will violently attack this man. They will dig up every little thing from traffic violations to parking tickets to credit card receipts. They will dig through his trash (literally). Anyone who thinks that the left is just going to roll over on this is not thinking clearly. I believe the DIMS will hit a new low this time. The left is a radical disease to this country and they will try and pull every underhanded dirty trick in the book with the MSM as their willing accomplices.

Please pray for The President and John Roberts. They are going to need it.

[EagleUSA]

In a perverse way, all this happening is good. From the leftist radicals associated with MoveOn.org, Soros, the Hollywood asylum, the radicals in the Senate, etc. keep it up, America is finally catching on (those that could not before)... Bush has done well to put a PREMIERE QUALITY candidate up for nomination. The moron left has a choice to make -- and we know how extreme they are about taking over the SCOTUS as their insurance of a liberal and socialist USA, so it is show-down time.

Will the radical left risk it all? Or will they finally realize they have lost the election TWICE, realize they are NOT in control, and introduce some sanity back into our Washington political processes (if that is possible) -- all this in light of the fact they still do not realize they are irrelevant and become moreso on a daily basis.

[Balding_Eagle]

I hope you're right. I WANT a huge knock-down drag-out fight over Roberts.

The Dims have no shame, no attack is too sleazy for them to be embarassed by it.

That ignorance comes at a tremendous price, which they will pay on the installment plan. Some in 2006, and some more in 2008.

[Personal Responsibility]

The left has made the courts the be-all and end-all of American Government (sans the UN, of course). I do not see them simply rolling over and playind dead here.

Roberts's confirmation may not be as down and dirty as some other candidate's may have been...but its not going to be a pristine walk in the park either.

[untrained skeptic]

They can't start slinging mud in earnest yet. They need to wait until the hearings are comming to a close and bring out the unsubstantiated rumors so they can say they need more time to look into the allegations and they need the White House and the candidate to quit stonewalling and answer their questions that they just brought up.

You can't start these things too soon, because the American public loses patience with them eventually.

[Bar-Face]

It is true that the Loony Left will try and dig up every thing they can on John Roberts but that doesn't bother me too much. After all like a snake biting, that is just what they do. What really worries me is the MINO Republican Senate. Roberts will be lucky to get out of committee before the next election and a vote by the full Senate by the '08 elections.
By the way, what ever happened to the vote on John Bolton?

[Mind-numbed Robot]

The Dems plan is to delay all action as much as possible so as not to pass any of the Republicans' legislative agenda and to besmirch the Republicans as a run up to the 2006 and 2008 elections. All else is done with that in mind. The smearing of Roberts is part of that because they know they can't defeat him but the can drag it out and dirty him up and the Republicans along with him.