Congratulations

To the new Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, who was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday 78-22. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, depending), the partisanship of the Democrats was on display here -- Roberts was basically the best possible nominee that Bush could choose, and half the Democrats still voted against him. You had Ted Kennedy try to appear reasonable and argue that he's supported more Republican nominees to the high court than Democrat nominees, but this is seriously misleading -- he's been around for 15 Republican nominees and only three Democrat ones, and he's voted against a record eight nominees (all Republicans, naturally). Also, this talk about "mainstream" is very irritating -- these dems won't vote against a leftist nominee, no matter how extreme, and won't support a conservative one (at least most highly visible conservative nominees -- they'll let some pass by unanimous consent and the like). Furthermore, some of the positions they consider "mainstream" -- abortion on demand, for instance -- aren't even close to being supported by a majority of the population. Basically, the democrats can't get their agenda ratified by the voters, so they use unelected judges to push it through -- not very democratic of them, is it?

Alright, I got off track enough. Tomorrow is the first day on the job for the new Chief, and it's also likely to be the day that Bush names his new pick to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. The Supreme Court has an argument day Monday, a non-argument day Tuesday, an argument day Wednesday, an off day Thursday, and a "conference day" Friday -- so, basically, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts will only perform the public portion of his new job twice this week. Sounds nice.