• "...the judicial nominations issue also just happens to have given the GOP its greatest success in the last Congress: the confirmations of Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito. And, looking forward, there's no reason to assume that those high-court nominations will be Bush's last; age, illness, and the vagaries of fate might well mean another vacancy in the next two years."
• "What if Democrats, instead of having 45 votes, had 48 or 49 [during the Samuel Alito confirmation hearings]? They might have been able to throw more roadblocks in Alito's path. If they had 50, things would have been much more difficult. And if they had 51, we would still be investigating the Concerned Alumni of Princeton."

More ominous for the GOP is Mr. York's closing, which highlights the Democrats' plan for judicial confirmations after November 7th:

• "Sen. Joseph Biden, a senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, was asked on CBS Sunday how Democratic victories would affect peoples' lives -- even if those victories were to mean just more seats in the Senate without outright Democratic control. 'Well, I think one of the things they'll see different if the Senate gap is closed, you'll not see many more right-wing nominees for the Supreme Court,' Biden said. 'I think that will, I think the president will have to go a more moderate route on choices for the Supreme Court, if there are any.'"
• "If Republicans lose the Senate, or lose even a few seats in the Senate, the president will be significantly weakened on the issue most important to his party's base. And GOP strategists will be asking the question: Why didn't we make a big deal of this when we had the chance?"

The full text of this article is available by clicking the link above.

# posted by Christopher Rinkus @ 11:29 AM