Summer of Love

"It will be the office of the president to nominate, and with the advice and consent of the senate to appoint. There will of course be no exertion of choice on the part of the senate. They may defeat one choice of the executive . . . but they cannot themselves choose — they can only ratify or reject the choice, of the president." -Hamilton, Federalist No. 66

This is by now old news, but since I don't blog on the weekends I have to get this out now: "Yeeeeeeeehaw." Talk about getting blindsided, and in a great way. Everyone would have (and still will) bet their life that Rehnquist is finished before summer's end, but O'Connor? Holy shit, talk about your all-time greatest two for one deals. I cannot lie, I'm absolutely giddy with excitement.

I can't wait for the resistance from the dirty left. Bush could nominate Christ himself and they would filibuster him for being a religious radical. And why are those bastards so desperate to win the battle to fill this vacancy? Because they can't win jack shit in the legislature, and far more often than not these days, they're losing at the ballot box. Last week, I made the tongue-in-cheek remark that the Supreme Court was becoming irrelevant. I say now, and with a straight face, that the Democratic party is already irrelevant, and its leaders know this. At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, the stakes involved for the Democrats in favorably filling this vacancy include the future existence of their party.

Bush has stated that he has no litmus test for nominees, and rightfully so. Nominees' personal opinions on issues ranging from the death penalty to abortion have absolutely no bearing on what really counts: their judicial philosophy. Bush has repeated almost ad nauseum that he wants a Justice who will "strictly interpret the Consititution" and "not use the bench to write social policy." Amen, amen, and amen. After the Court's latest wave of insane decisions last week, those words should be shouted down from the mountaintop. These calls from leftists for Bush to choose a nominee who will "unify" are completely absurd and inappropriate. It is YOUR job, Sens. Kennedy and Reid, to unify; it is the Court's job to follow the law to T, divisive as it may be.

This is a huge moment in time. One of the more understated reasons for Bush's re-election last year was the inevitbility of a Supreme Court vacancy, and the fact that more than a few folks felt he would make a wise decision on who should fill it. I obviously didn't (don't?) vote, but if I would've, you bet your sweet arse that that would've been the clincher for me. As split as Americans are about war, social security, and every other issue out there, they can all agree on one thing: judicial activism is bad. The time to reclaim the Court is now, and Bush is going to be under unbelievable pressure to follow through on his campaign promises. Time to buck up, Georgie boy.

And now, for your entertainment purposes, I offer you one of the greatest blogs EVER: I Hate Horses.