SCOTUS Campaign -- Battle Lines are Drawn

Apparently President Bush....oh, excuse me--liberal readers will not recognize that title and name--Chimpy the AntiChrist....has read the captured dispatches and come to the correct conclusion: A large battle is coming no matter what he does to prevent it, so he might as well throw himself into the fray--strike quickly and decisively, trying to dislocate the enemy.

Last night, he announced John Roberts as his choice to replace Sandra Roe O'Connor on the Supreme Court.

Roberts is young, articulate, legally brilliant, widely respected, and staunchly conservative. He is probably the best choice the President could have made. There is extensive coverage of his background and prospects over at Prof. Reynold's place. SCOTUSBlog also has an excellent four-part series on Roberts and Hugh Hewitt has fine coverage based on personal knowledge of the judge.

The armies that will contest the nomination are arraying themselves. The customary units line up on the left: The Naral Valkyrie Corps already has an anti-Roberts petition up on its site and the PFAW Division had a condemnatory "preliminary report" up even before the President announced the nomination last night. The report is remarkable: It's hard to believe something so heavy with tendentious rhetoric (first words of overview: "Robert's record is a disturbing one") could be held by such a thin tissue of facts.

The president has moved with admirable swiftness--none of the foot-dragging delay of a McClellan. The opposition may be in disarray; let us hope the President can keep the momentum he's created--blow through the gaps in South Mountain, as it were, and join battle near the riverbed to the west before the rebel forces have time to assemble. A major victory here could be a decisive blow in the larger war against the culture of leftism.



As usual, IowaHawk has the funniest take on the matter:

He or She Is The Wrong Man or Woman For The Court

Critical Urgent Community Action Bulletin
from the Progressive Action Network For American Progress

For Immediate Release

The Progressive Action Network For American Progress is extremely concerned by today's news that President Bush has selected ___JOHN ROBERTS___ as his nominee for the vacancy on the United States Supreme Court. Unlike outgoing Justice Sandra Day O'Conner, the widely respected and admired moderate consensus sensible mainstream compromisist, ___JOHN ROBERTS___ has a shocking record of extremely extreme legal positions that fill us with grave concerns about ___HIS___ fitness for this critically crucial office.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

First, write your newspaper and/or Senator and let them know that you will not stand by idly while Bush and Company install a pseudo-" ___WHITE MAN___" like ___JOHN ROBERTS___ on the nation's highest court. Here's a letter to get you started!

Dear Senator __________

As a constituent and a voter in our great state of ___________, home of the famous ___________, I am proud that our state enjoys the the nickname of "Cradle of ____________s." This is why I must strongly urge you to oppose the nomination of ___JOHN ROBERTS___, a dangerous extremist whose legal rulings threaten to endanger our state's beloved ___________, making us no better than Mississippi.

Sincerely,

Your Name Here

Be polite and remember to fill in your Senator's name and pertinent facts about your state. If you are from Mississippi, replace "Mississippi" with "California". Also, replace "Your Name Here" with your name, unless your name is actually "Your Name Here."

Another thing you can do to help is to find more information about ___JOHN ROBERTS___ . The people who know ___HIM___, what do they say about ___HIM___ ? Was ___HE___ ever in trouble with the law? Frequently, ___WHITE MEN___ like ___JOHN ROBERTS___ have arrest records in their youth. If you are near ___JOHN ROBERTS___ 's hometown of ___UNKNOWN___, try searching in the local police archives for the ___JOHN ROBERTS___ name or possible aliases. Also, think hard -- are you certain that you have not been personally victimized, or assaulted by ___JOHN ROBERTS___? Search your recollections carefully. Scientists tell us that millions of us suffer from Repressed Memory Syndrome -- a debilitating psychological problem where victims are unable to recall a painful physical or emotional trauma, such as being physically violated by ___JOHN ROBERTS___. If you do not remember this happening to you, please call us and we will get you the help you need to recover your mind and start the road to healing....

Monk

Update: The Kossaks are at it already. A randomly chosen entry from the Daily Kos comment section (Where the Fever Swamp Lives!):

He has to be a pervert,

time is short to find out which prevision. Let's hope it's an illegal one.

The public understands sex, the more deranged the better. This guy is prime for strange attractions. He is way too old to have toddlers, why did he delay marriage? The one thing that these out to lunch types have in common is their contempt for women it's manifest in their decisions, but eventually disclosed in their disturbing attractions.

Remember, turn about is fair play.

by EasternOkie on Tue Jul 19th, 2005 at 15:22:40 PDT

...Showing once again why this analysis is so cogent.

Update 2: Senator Ted Kennedy, America's greatest underwater escape artist, waded into the fray even before the ink was dry on the President's statement:

...The Supreme Court is often the last line of defense for the freedoms and liberties for hundreds of millions of Americans.

Often, but not always. For one in your company some years ago, Senator, the guardrail over Chappaquiddick Bridge was the last line, but she still lost her right to life and liberty...

...Few responsibilities of the Senate are more important than reviewing the qualifications of nominees for the Supreme Court.

If they're sober enough to read the qualifications, that is...

...Every American ought to be asking some tough questions right now about whether Mr. Roberts is fit to serve on the highest court in the land.

A bit tougher than the questions Massachusetts voters asked when they elected you to the highest legislative body in the land, one would presume...

...Will he separate his personal ideology from the rule of law and protect the rights and freedoms of all Americans, not just the powerful or the wealthy[?]

Thus you think his "personal ideology" makes him opposed to "the rights and freedoms of all Americans."

Justice O¹Connor set a high standard. She tried to bring the nation together, and she respected the Constitution. She was a mainstream conservative who used her ability and respect for the rule of law to find solutions that would strengthen us as a nation, as the Constitution intended.

Is it really possible to stand so far out in left field that Sandra O'Connor looks likes a "mainstream conservative?" I think you have to be way up in the bleachers at the far end of the third base foul line, if not out in the parking lot.

Or does "mainstream" really just mean "milquetoast?"

...Mr. Roberts must demonstrate that he meets that standard before the American people, and he will have an opportunity to do so before the Senate Judiciary Committee before the coming weeks.

By which the Senator means, "we will flay his skin with shards of glass, accuse he and his maternal grandmother of carnal relations with dogs and goats before the world press, subject his wife and toddler children to the threat of travelling to their next vacation in a car with me, and wind up by sewing him inside a wet cow hide with a colony of fire ants and leaving him out in the sun..."

"Oh....and filibuster his a$$."

...No nominee, especially a nominee who is well known to have argued ideological positions on issues important to the American people, should be confirmed without full and candid disclosure and discussion of those positions and their importance to him.

By which the Senator means, "No nominee...should be confirmed..."

I welcome the opportunity to question Mr. Roberts, and believe that the American people will know at the end of this process whether he should advance to the Supreme Court.

I bet you do, Senator. I know you and your ilk want to drown his candidacy and all others Bush sends your way. But then, you know all about drowning, right Senator?

Senator Kennedy delivers his
statement to the press yesterday

Update 3: Democratic Underground has a good rundown of leftie sites' reactions to the nomination. All the usual suspects.