Stalling On Roberts Is Desperate

The best strategy the Dems have been able to come up with to fight the Roberts nomination is stalling. Eloquently stated by the junior (in so many ways) senator from California, who told her leftist moneymen:

"I have the ultimate step,. I can use all the parliamentary rules I have as a senator to stand up and fight for you."

So they clamor for the release of the George H.W. Bush-era documents as a set up in their little chess game: Clamor now for something they know they won't get, then use that as an excuse for parliamentary delays later.

It's a stupid approach, but troubling in one regard: Roberts needs to be confirmed by October or we have another year of O'Connor. That's not terrible, but it would allow the Dems to push the nomination into the 2006 election year. I think that would hurt them, but they're not too good these days in discerning what hurts and helps their party.

The strategy suffers the unfortunate drawback of being about as believable as John Kerry's war hero status. That's because there's a consistency in John Roberts' views that has been documented and re-documented to the point that it's clear that additional papers will show nothing new of substance. Even AP agrees:

Taken as a whole, the material released Thursday reinforced the well-established image of Roberts as a young lawyer whose views on abortion, affirmative action, school prayer and more were in harmony with the conservative president he served.

So what's left for them to discover? Only that presidents have a rightful expectation to be able to appoint judges that reflect their views, not the views of the opposition party.