Rehnquist passing away was a huge opportunity for Bush.
Roberts' confirmation should go very quickly. It would be beyond all but the most extreme Democrat's vision to hold up the vote when two seats are open on the SCOTUS.
I hope Bush doesn't make the same mistake his father did when it comes time for the 2nd nomination... nominate a "moderate" like Souter. What a huge mistake that was.
I've gone back and forth on Bush. He had done extremely well on foreign policy in a trying time, and his tax cuts were clearly important to the economic boom we've seen during his term. But actions such as signing McCain-Feingold, supporting Kennedy's education bill, and founding a vast new entitlement with the Medicare prescription bill are beyond disappointing. McCain-Feingold is more in the heart-breaking category.
But if he'll stand firm on Supreme Court nominees, and put in place a court that can actually reverse some of the madness of the last 70 years, then I promise I'll never harp on the guy's failings again.
The Supreme Court is his last chance to make a real impression on the heart and soul of this country. Social Security reform appears dead, and it wasn't a very ambitious proposal to start with. He has no other major initiatives on the horizon - he'll probably be too busy fighting fires in Iraq and New Orleans for the next few months. So this is it.
I don't even expect that we'll see immediate changes because of the Bush's nominees. All he has to do is swap out O'Conner with an originalist, and get Roberts to replace Rehnquist. That will lay the foundation.
He may get the chance to do more, but I actually expect that to fall to his successor. I have a feeling Ginsberg and Stevens will try to hang on looking for a Democratic president to replace them. (Stevens, being 85, may very well not make it. But I think he'll try.) If and when those two are replaced by judges who can read the plain English of the Constitution, then we could see some real reversals in the seemingly never-ending expansion of the role of government in American life.
To play the Dem game, Roberts is replacing O'Connor, therefore we all expect W. to appoint a CONSERVATIVE to replace Rhenquist. The Dems have nothing, nothing.