That report of a recent Christian conversion would be the explanation. Bush knows her current state of mind will be camouflaged by the entirety of her history.
As for never being a judge, there is a school of thought that recommends some wisdom in non lawyers serving on the USSC.
Bush didn't do this haphazardly. He's a smart man. He knows the ebb and flow of what is going to unfold, and so does Rove. She has no paper trail for the liberals to attack and Bush knows she is a Christian.
She is . . . very possibly . . . the rightward most nominee who is confirmable.
I would add the qualifier, "without a fight," to that.
Possible, but Luttig was a sure thing conservative with a paper trail to prove it. Given we have 55 votes in the Senate, and Ruth B. G. got 90+ votes, having to go stealth and play the "trust me" game just stinks.
Good grief... where have we heard THAT before???
BOHICA
A conservative convert nominee with a deceiving paper trail, so that RINOs and moderate dems have political cover in supporting her? I hope so. But if true, then Bush & Co. are making things much more complicated than they need to be. Republicans have a majority in the Senate and Bush is not up for reelection. Just gear up the Senate Republicans to go nuclear and push through a true KNOWN conservative in short order. There would have been an explosive outcry, and then the next topic of the day would have replaced it in the headlines. Now, we've got an unknown, and, possible, a liberal. Recent converts often revert back to their old ways. Ugh.
I do, however, agree that her lack of experience as a judge should not matter. On Constitutional matters, all that matters is whether she can read the text or not, and whether you can make logical arguments based on it. In fact, judges sometimes get sucked in to the legal culture and forget this simple fact.
They're all confirmable. There is no one who ISN'T confirmable. Some nominees would take a lot more pain to get in, but we're all very grateful to have Justice Thomas on the bench, aren't we?
Maybe we should have avoided the fight and gone with another New England "hearsay conservative" like Souter instead of subjecting our nation to a difficult hearing over Clarence Thomas.