I know this and that is why judicial candidates are so important NOW.
Excellent point that can't be made resoundingly enough. But Dubya keeps elevating people like Miguel Estrada, who is in that same RiNOferous vein as Condi, Powell, and X41.
The acid test comes when Justice Rehnquist (may he overcome his terrible illness and live long) retires. Will Dubya elevate Justice Scalia? That's what I see as the acid test.
If Dubya names Scalia CJ, then O'Connor, who was hoping for it, will retire. But O'Connor has been waiting to retire, we've been told, for two or three years. Did Dubya whisper something into her ear? If he elevates O'Connor, we're screwed -- she voted to reaffirm Roe, and then she was the swing vote on the Lawrence crudity. O'Connor as CJ would play keep-away with Scalia and Thomas until they both turned blue, and Ginzburg would wind up being the intellectual on the court instead of Scalia -- then the Tenth Amendment restoration is toast, federalism is toast, and Hamiltonian Big Government and the Commerce Clause totalitarians are back in business. Want that?
X41 nominated Souter. I'm afraid Dubya is going to nominate more Souters. That's the problem.
Just like putting Thurgood Marshall, who argued ex parte in Brown vs. Board of Education, on the bench to be an advocate on the Court for the civil rights leadership.
Liberals have used the Supreme Court as a third, and decretory, legislative chamber, nominating a long line of totally partisan positivist spear-carriers to the High Court. And Republicans keep nominating secret swingers, rusty gates, and middle-of-the-roaders.