Allow me to unload for a moment.
Here we have a judge - on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for God's sake - who actually rules according to the U.S. Constitution - meaning: limited federal powers which may legitimately be used only to protect individual rights. He has a long history of doing so.
So is the national republican party supporting him? Of course not. I forgot, they are too busy pushing hispanic and female judges (who may be completely qualified, but that is not the point) in an attempt to garner demographic blocks which exit polls tell us usually vote for the opposition party. The eastern establishment republicans (that forced the Dole familiy on the nation) are afraid to admit (let alone proclaim) that the concept of Individual Rights and Capitalism is the most moral political-economic system ever devised for the organization of human activity in a social environment. By their silence and without any discussion, they hang their heads and admit that we conservatives are really mean-spirited, insensitive people but hey, we are ashamed of ourselves and really want to change. They believe that if we become racial-quota-pimps like Jesse Jackson, then we can be seen as "good people" after all and it will be OK to vote for somebody with an (R) after their name.
It's pandering, and it's appeasement. And Oh, by the way, it won't work. It never has worked, and never will work. The pubbies (as usual) assume that the opposition is as adrift philosophically as the republican party, but of course that is incorrect. The 'RATS know what they want, and it is you and me.
Until the republican party stands up for the philosophy of capitalism and all it subsumes (liberty, freedom, limited government, and judges like Alex Kozinski who understands why those concepts are moral and will uphold them), then they are nothing more than insignificant little opportunists, and much worse than the democRATS.
As always Jim, thank you for this forum where I can speak (type?) my mind.