It is not the attitude of a wimp. It is the attitude of a man with wimps on his flank in the Senate. They wimped out over the nuclear option.
I see you missed that part of Sowell's column.
I did not miss his point, I adimantly disagree with it.
James Taranto wrote: The GOP has 55 senators, so six of them would have to vote "no" to defeat a nominee. Coincidentally, that is the number of Republicans who voted against Robert Bork in 1987. But liberal Republicans were more numerous then.
Today there are just three GOP liberals, all from New England--Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine--who seem likely to vote against a too-conservative nominee.
Only one Bush judicial appointee, an Arkansas district judge named Leon Holmes, has ever received a negative vote from any Republican other than the New England trio.
Virtually any nominee other than Judge Holmes, then, seems assured of at least 52 votes.