Judge J.R. Jr.

I'm sure you're wondering why you haven't heard from me about the new Supreme Court nomination yet. Well, it's because I don't know the guy from Adam. From everything I've read he seems okay, certainly the pick could have been much worse. Or could it?

We've known since hearing the election results that King George's largest victory would be the naming of one, possibly even two or more new members to the Supreme Court. We knew that he would be looking for people in the mold of Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. He's told us that. And as he underscored recently, he does what he says he's going to do. Therefore any Bushie choice must be looked at through this particular lens.

On the surface, Judge John Roberts Jr. seems a decent fellow and a good choice. His record as a Federal judge is not large, and he hasn't left a huge paper trail for us to study his court decisions. On the other hand, he's served the Bush family for a number of years in fights with the Supreme Court, including the first selection of King George following the Florida scandal. After everything that Bushie has done in office over the past five years, it's VERY difficult to trust him now. How many times have we, the people, been Bushwhacked in the past?

The other unsettling thing for me is the lifestyle distance between the man, Judge J.R. Jr., and the common person on the street. I have difficulty thinking a member of the Washington Elect, a magna cum laude Harvard Law School Graduate, whose sphere of interest has rarely gone beyond Washington DC and Republican elite circles would be able to empathize with the common people when making his rulings. Justice O'Connor, whom he's replacing was uniquely capable of discerning how a law would affect the common person and voted accordingly. His wife, Jane, is a former vice-president of Feminists for Life, an anti-abortion group.

There is no doubt that Judge J.R. Jr. is in the administrations's pocket. He's voted for the administration in any number of cases that have come before him. It's unlikely that this would change with Judge J.R. Jr. on the bench of the Supreme Court. But I guess that's to be expected.

So am I happy about this choice? Not really. Although he states clearly that his rulings would not favor any ideology, his past performance doesn't reflect that. I feel he owes an enormous debt to King George for this nomination and I have little doubt that this will be reflected in his decisions while on the high court.

Color me tentative, at best.

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