Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Bush Knocks it out of the park

Bush hit a home run with his SCOTUS nominee. He picked staunch conservative John Roberts. A former law clerk for William Rehnquist Roberts is respected as a lawyer from both sides of the political spectrum. He is 50 years old and has actually litigated cases in front of the Supreme Court.

Hugh Hewitt has worked with him before and had this to say about him:
Judge John Roberts may be the smartest lawyer I have known, and he combines that intellect with a graciousness and good humor that will make it hard for any except the most extreme ideolouges to oppose him. Here's his bio, but it cannot fully convey the great intellectual force which Justice Roberts will bring to the SCOTUS.

Full disclosure: Judge Roberts and I were colleagues in the White House Counsel's Office in 1985/1986. A colleague of his from his Hogan & Hartson days, Dan Poneman, was a guest on the program earlier and a transcript of that conversation will be posted at Poneman is a center-left specialist on national security issues, having served both the first President Bush and President Clinton on the NSC. Poneman's enthusiasm for the Roberts nomination will be mirrored across official Washington which will have a very hard time summoning any energy to smear as well regarded and liked man as Judge Roberts.
The conventional wisdom at this point is that Roberts will be confirmed without much hassle. The Dems didn't actually come out and smear him, Roberts is too well liked in DC circles, basically they just said that they would "ask lots of questions" during the hearings. Which means "drat we can't smear him outright but we reserve the right to look into his past for any and every piece of dirt we can find".

I couldn't be happier with this pick. Roberts is one of the more reliably conservative people that had a chance for the nomination. He will join Scalia and Thomas on the right side of the court. I also like the fact that his is 50 and so will be on the bench for a long long time. I also think that this is just a brilliant move by President Bush, he promised to confer with the Democrats and he kept that promise. He nominated someone whom lots of Democrats will support but also lots of Democrat moonbats will hate, the Democratic party will split on this and will not be able to gin up a reason for a filibuster. Also Bush nominated him to the Federal bench where he sits now and Roberts was confirmed in 2003 without much fanfare. But we know he's a good conservative just by looking at who's upset at his nomination, NARAL, NOW, Feminist League etc. Roberts looks to me like a conservative Ginsberg, the opposing party might hate his politics but there is no question that he has the credentials, experience, and temperament to be considered extremely qualified.

Michelle Malkin has a list of reactions.