This is BS. Roberts got on easily because he was and is a stealth cnadidate. We STILL don't know how conservative he is. Alito is less steathy but but still not a hardcore conservative. He had a much tougher time and won a narrower majority. The next nominee has the potential to swing the court hard right. Against a true conservative like Janice Brown the Dems will use the exact same playbook that they always have. I predict the next confirmation hearing will make the Clarence Thomas fight look like a tea party.
He IS more conservative than Alito, a solid conservative in his own right, and that will horrify Specter to hear.
Roberts was nominated to the Court of Appeals in 1992, but detestable libs prevented a vote on his nomination by pushing it off through an election year.
When Clinton was elected, he wanted no part of a Roberts-like judge, so Roberts went into private practice.
Bush 43 nominated Roberts in 2001 and the Democrats prevented his nomination from coming to a vote.
Here's a history of the libs pushing Roberts aside:
John Glover Roberts, Jr.
- 1st Appointed: January 27, 1992
- 2nd Appointed: May 9, 2001
- 3rd Appointed: January 7, 2003
- Confirmed: May 8, 2003 by a voice vote because libs were afraid to go on record as supporting him.
- Removed when Confirmed as Chief Justice of U.S. Supreme Court: September 29, 2005
Roberts is only a STEALTH candidate to the paranoid and those new to the conservative judicial nomination process.