It is just after 9 PM in Washington and President Bush has just given the floor to the Honorable John Roberts of the D.C. Circuit after announcing his choice to make the fifty year-old Roberts the next Supreme Court Justice. Roberts, a distinguished “Double Harvard” who has served for the past two years on “The Stepping Stone to the Supreme Court,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, was a surprise choice after Edith Clement and Edith Jones seemed to have taken over the lead in the past few days.
Once again, it is President Bush, a man repeatedly belittled by the Left as a man of little mental acuity, who has shown himself to be a brilliant political tactician. Knowing that Roberts is a solid conservative, and that Charles Schumer and Pat Leahy are warming up MoveOn.org, et al. to immediately try to block him, Bush picked a man who was a nearly unanimous winner of the increasingly difficult confirmation derby, and he focused his speech on this. Bush noted that top individuals from both parties strongly supported Roberts’ confirmation to the D.C. Circuit. This speech threw down the gauntlet and has put the Dems in a very tough situation: How do they, especially in accordance with the McCain-Byrd agreement, find a way to in just two years do an about-face on a judge who faced just three dissenting votes (the surprising list: Schumer, Durbin, Kennedy) in 2003?
Roberts is considered to be a top conservative justice. Some of the Fox All-Stars are arguing a bit over “how Right” Roberts is, but here’s all you need to know: As I write this, Schumer and Leahy are on a full-out attack on Roberts’ credentials.
Nathan Novak at 6:23 pm
