"Roberts Hysteria" Explained

Here's a good summary of why the Left is getting so worked up about the Roberts nomination, penned by Tom Ashcraft in the Charlotte Observer. It's nothing we haven't heard before, but it's well summarized, and well stated:

Given this dispersion of power in our federal system, why has President Bush's promotion of D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge John Roberts to the Supreme Court been received in the political world about the way you'd expect hornets to receive kids who poke a stick around inside their nest?

The answer is complicated and spans decades, but can be boiled down as follows:

First, the Supreme Court has gone out of its way to convert itself into a political body. Second, the political program it has enacted largely matches up with liberal goals unattainable through elections and normal democratic process. Third, the idea that a Republican president and, Republican Senate might return the court to its normal, more limited judicial function is terrifying to the bastions of liberal power comfortable with a "Continually Progressive America," delivered and maintained by the court.