Perhaps not at the start, but he also shows troubling indications that he could "grow". He is active in the social circuit in D.C. and his reticence in staking out a philosophical position might indicate quite a bit of ambition. He may actually be very close to an O'Connor, or, horrors, an Anthony Kennedy. As a total aside from the topic of this thread, I was reading Senator Schumer's questions for Roberts. I don't really find any of them outrageous, but I doubt Schumer would like any of the answers he's liable to get. I did notice one glaring omission, though.....nowhere in those questions is Judge Roberts asked what importance foreign law should have in deciding Supreme Court cases not involving treaties with other nations. Hopefully Cornyn or someone will think to ask that of him. Of course, Specter would be all for using foreign law. The fact that Specter seems ok with this pick is extremely troubling as well to me. He loathes originalists and the fact that he's not upset is another very large red flag for me.
All good points Marcus, except some of Schumers questions were "dumbass" IMO.
I have a feeling that if GWB nominated Thomas Jefferson we'd still get a bunch of paranoid Republicans who are looking for betrayal at every corner to complain, and point to a personal letter containing the phrase "wall of separation" as their evidence why the guy is a bad choice and "not an originalist".