[NeoCaveman]

It doesn't really matter who is replacing whom, although Petronski is correct because we let a thoughtful pro-life justice in Byron White be replaced by a hard core leftist ideologue named Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

No one cared about balance then so balance doesn't count now either.

[JeffAtlanta]

No one cared about balance then so balance doesn't count now either.

Idealy you are correct. But in this senate, balance probably does matter. For example, there is no way that this de facto democratically controlled senate would allow Ginsburg to be replaced by someone like Alito.

My point is that the replacements for Rhenquist and O'Conner probably shifted the court just a little to the right, but the way that we structured the deal, it makes it look like we're shifting it a huge amount to the right.

I don't care anything about balance, but I'm not the one with a confirmation vote either. We have to remember that democrats have two sets of rules, one for them and one for us. To them, the Ginsburg confirmation is ancient history.