Reply #48: Boy, evidence doesn't seem too compelling to you.....

[springhill]

You would rather just "hope" that his views are different from those that he has espoused over the years. As I have said from the beginning, Bush is not going to take a chance of putting someone on the Supreme Court who is not his waterboy. Why on earth would you believe he would?

You might review this article from Jonathan Turley. Its title is "The Nomination of John Roberts" - It's time to be afraid, very afraid.

In 1948, a young Abner Mikva (future Illinois congressman and federal judge) reportedly walked into an Illinois Democratic committeeman's office to volunteer as an enthusiastic young Democrat. The cigar-chomping committeeman looked suspiciously at Mikva and asked, "Who sent you?" Mikva answered "Nobody." The committeeman then barked, "We don't want nobody nobody sent."

It is a Chicago lesson that comes to mind with last week's Supreme Court nomination. For conservative groups, nominee John Roberts was not sent by nobody but by President Bush--and that appears to be enough. While his views are not well-known publicly, Roberts is well-known in the Beltway and in the White House.

With little public record, the White House was able to focus on personality rather than ideology. Indeed, the comments of the White House and others made it sound like we're adopting a golden retriever: He is "kind," "loyal," "family-oriented," "faithful" and "friendly." The only thing missing is an American Kennel Club certificate that he was free of hip dysplasia.

The suggestion that Roberts is not as hard-right as other people on the shortlist confuses style with substance. As someone who believes that Bush is entitled to such a nominee, I am less bothered by the fact that he is extremely conservative as I am the odd suggestion that he might be a swing vote on the Supreme Court. If Roberts is a swing vote on the court, it would be between the far right and the farther right.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0507240283jul24,0,3478941.story?coll=chi-newsopinioncommentary-hed