ConfirmThem

I would agree for the most part. The President has done well in terms of quality. Regrettably, neither he nor his staff has been willing to move very quickly or to push recalcitrant senators. As the article notes, the sheer numbers are low and the opportunity to work with a majority in the Senate is gone. That lowers the grade to an A-.

Of course, the Senate Republicans as a group get a solid D. They did not fumble on Roberts or Alito, and they eventually have confirmed a number of the President's excellent nominees. Thus, it would be unfair to flunk them outright. But even a C would be blatant grade inflation; far too many very qualified candidates have died on the vine.

as for praiseworthy senators, I would add Orrin Hatch, Jeff Sessions and, surprisingly, Arlen Specter (although I put that down to a sense of duty more than passion, it counts either way).

I wouldn't say Bush has completely fixed the judiciary, but he's done an awful lot, the most he could with the opportunities he's had (hopefully he gets one more big opportunity!), and has put us in the position where fixing it is actually in sight. Bringing us off life support is no small accomplishment.

Our mantra for the next 19 months should be: Win 08, and we fix the judiciary for a generation.

Fair is fair. Specter was immensely helpful as with Thomas. Then again he sabotaged Bork, which gave us Kennedy and then Souter, so that mistake won't be repaired until he shepherds PauL Clement through for Stevens. But unless the Rs win the White House, it will never be repaired.

When I hit the link, it runs to an article about Islam.

I think maybe this is the link: http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/kstrasselpw/?id=110009904

Thanks. It's fixed now.

I wouldn't give Sen. Specter too high of marks. He failed to live up to many promises when it came to the speeding up the nominee hearings. He allowed the Dems to retain effective vetoes for their circuit nominees. He refused to disclose his vote on the nuclear option when his vote would have cemented a majority (although it's just as well he didn't if he planned to vote against since he could have sunk it, but that's hardly a point in his favor).

He might have exceeded expectations and letting him keep his chair might have been politically smart (since he might have been a pain in the butt otherwise), but he's hardly a hero here.

As for President Bush, I wouldn't say a Miers nomination and the possibility that, after 8 years in office, several circuits being in danger of going liberal, not getting involved in the filibuster issue until it was too late, and the agonizingly slow drip of nominations is worthy of an A unless you're grading on a curve. President Bush has done well, but he's also watched opportunities for longlasting changes fall by the wayside.

Mitt Romney, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani--voters are demanding contenders state what sort of judges they would appoint, and don't think the candidates aren't weighing their answers carefully.

Given Giuliani's pitiful answer a couple days ago, I'd say that he needs to think about it a bit more carefully.

"...[Unfortunately, a] few notable senators aside--Mitch McConnell, Jon Kyl, John Cornyn--the reality is that few Republicans have matched Mr. Bush's passion."

Thanks, Senator -- I mean Professor -- DeWine!

The Gang of 14 took away at least some of the power, so we never got to see what he could fully do. He didn't pussyfoot around when it came to the two SC nominees. If Frist had more balls and there was no Gof14 we'd been able to see much more how Specter was doing. He didn't have to worry about pushing through nominees who were obviously dead on the floor due to the crap Frist and the G14 allowed.

I agree, GWB appointing Harriot "Harry" Meiers was brazen incompetence. Appointing Alito was pure political expedience, mixed with a large helping of political cowardice.

The country was has a continuous leftward drift precisely because both the liberal and conservative movements have leaders that are far to the left of their respective memberships. The country will only turn to the right when rank-and-file conservatives d

He didn't have to worry about pushing through nominees who were obviously dead on the floor due to the crap Frist and the G14 allowed.

He was complicit in those soft filibusters. I don't give him any slack for that.

Conservatives have to judge results, not "spin."

If liberals such as Stevens, and Souter are appointed to the Supreme Court, conservatives should assume that is precisely because that the direction the establishment wanted the Supreme Court to be directed.

If moderates were confirmed, and conservative not confirmed, to the COAs, conservatives should assume that is what the Republican party wanted to happen.

The country was has a continuous leftward drift precisely because both the liberal and conservative movements have leaders that are far to the left of their respective memberships. The country will only turn to the right when rank-and-file conservatives demand conservative results from truly conservative politicians.