I don't call this brilliant. This president makes good appointments, so until I see evidence to the contrary, I will, for now, assume that she is a good, solid conservative. But I will follow the nomination process very closely. I know for certain that she must be very competent because this man cannot stand incompetence and she's worked with him in a number of roles. That said, this sends out a lot of harmful signals, IMHO. It means that this president may have lost his will for a fight. The dems will sense this and begin to circle him like sharks circle blood in the water. It also gives the signal that if you are a conservative, never, ever make it known if you have judicial career aspirations. We need to have conservative judges on the bench who can speak and aspire to continue to get ahead in their career. This was not the nomination he should have made, even if she turns out to be good. Plus, if the dems had fought against it a JRB, it would have hurt them in the polls in 2006.
"This president makes good appointments, so until I see evidence to the contrary, I will, for now, assume that she is a good, solid conservative."
- I can't find anything to disagree with you but would only add that Bush's Christian beliefs are real and deeply held. I don't see him knowingly appointing a nominee with a judicial activist temperament to the Court, let alone one with a pro choice agenda. He's worked closely with her for years and they must have gone over these hot button topics many times, both socially and in a legal advisory sense so I'm sure he believes he knows how she thinks on many issues.