Live to fight another day

The Washington Post said it first Sunday, but this clipmonkey's been saying it for some time. John Roberts should be confirmed by a solid, nearly unanimous vote.

Roberts has proven himself fully qualified to serve on the Supreme Court. Admittedly, he was not the most forthright nominee in confirmation hearing history, but his credentials are impressive and nothing came up during his hearings that disqualified him. Of course, many left-wing clipmonkeys would prefer Laurence Tribe or Mario Cuomo or some such liberal, but we lost the election last November and we can't change that.

Left-wing interest groups are creating hysteria over Roberts, as they did with Justice Souter's nomination a while back ("Stop Souter or women will die"). They may even be right that Roberts will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. Unfortunately, little can be done a) to predict that, and b) to make President Bush pick someone acceptable to the left. That's why Democrats should conserve their ammunition in case Bush nominates some genuine nut such as Janice Rogers Brown for the high court.

For now, though, Senate Democrats should show this president the same courtesy extended to Bill Clinton and his nominees Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, nearly unanimous support. The best we can do is hope that Roberts recognizes that many Americans do not grow up with all of the opportunities that he had, and start working to help win the majority in the Senate in '06 and the presidency in '08.