"By moving the court solidly right, he has increased the pressure on Stevens and Ruth Buzzi to beat it. Who wants to be on the losing side all the time? Look for one of them (or both) to bail. This was beyond a home run. Lindsay Graham was on Hannity talking like Attila the Hun, warning the Dems that they did NOT include a USSC pick as an "extraordinary circumstance."
I agree. Solidly. Fully.
When I heard that President Bush was announcing his choice during Prime Time (rather than sneaking someone in at 5:30 on a Friday), I posted that a Prime Time announcement meant that GWB was *picking* a fight with the Dems.
This is in-your-face politics, and I love it!
Stevens is old, by the way. Ginsberg is ailing. Rehnquist will soon retire. At a minimum, President Bush will place 4 new Justices onto the SCOTUS.
Young justices, too. By 2008 we'll see a court makeup that won't change ideologically for 30 years...possibly longer.
See the post following yours: the Dems are utterly beyond reality. They think, somehow, that a non-existent leak to a reporter who then lied about Joe Wilson who lied is somehow going to translate into damaging . . . Bush??? This is akin to praying that someone on the Dallas Cowboys breaks a leg because it will cause Shaquille O'Neal to miss a free throw. I mean, it's incomprehensible how much they now have invested in the Rove non-story!