Battle Over Nominee May Center on Abortion
And the winner of the award for "Most Obvious Headline That Could Have Been Written Any Time in the Last 15 Years" is...
Seriously, did anyone in America who hasn't been living in a cave NOT know that the most controversial issue up for discussion when a new Supreme Court justice is nominated is abortion?
Anyhow, the quick view of Roberts is this: Not the scariest guy Bush could have nominated, but probably the most frightening combination of "conservative" and "inscrutable" he could have found. There's no way Democrats can torpedo him for refusing to answer questions at a nationally televised hearing; the guy is smart and polished and will no doubt resist all demands for specificity while looking cool, calm, and collected. He has no stated positions with which Democrats can make hay. He's not a woman, but he can hardly be held accountable for that.
The end result: He won't write opinions as witty or mean-spirited as Scalia, so the Right won't adore him. But he'll vote with Scalia and Thomas and Rehnquist a lot--more than O'Connor ever did. And he's going to get confirmed, unless he has an illegitimate child or a gay lover on the side. The balance has shifted. It's not a good thing.
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