Actually, it’s not lame, and I’m not whining about anything. I’m simply saying that W is not going to get any kudos from me for both judges.
He was well aware beforehand what the people expected and desired from him as regards judicial nominations. He knew very well one reason many of us voted for him was to, in his Constitutional duties as President, nominate constructionist jurists to the court. It was not, in any way shape or form, a surprise to him that we expected a better jurist than Harriet Miers.
So, one of the primary reasons he was elected (and he knew this) was to appoint jurists such as this. The fact that he did not was a poke in the eye (as he also knew) of the respective electorate.
He is entitled to no credit for appointing a jurist simply silence the huge sh*t storm stirred up by the Miers appointment.
See if you can follow this train of thought. When we elect people and they know in advance why they are being elected, AND they lead the electorate to expect that they will do what they were elected to do (and then don’t do it), then you may see that W deserves squat in admiration for Alito.
That ain’t whining. It is a logical train of thought. We have a representative form of government and it’s not whining to expect representation.
Your train of thought leaves out two important pieces of information. First that President Bush's judicial nominations have been sterling across the board, and second that he is entitled to his own opinion. No president is an automaton. Obviously, President Bush felt that Harriet Miers would be a good candidate, or else, based on his otherwise fine record of judicial nominations, he would not have nominated her.
We have a representative form of government and it’s not whining to expect representation.
It is whining to continually bitch about a battle you already won over three years ago. It is whining to think that "representation" means you expect the person who represents you to not use his or her own judgement. It's why we elect representatives in the first place -- because we can't be there in person to exercise our own individual judgements. It is whining to continue to excoriate a representative who makes an initial decision, then changes course in response to the will of the people.