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Senate Democrats are preparing to play to the cameras once more while raking Supreme Court nominee John Roberts over the coals, but the fight may not be as fierce as some Liberals want. There's bound to be some huffing and puffing during the confirmation hearings, as many of the radical groups controlling the Democrats demand they fight a battle that cannot be won. Though Democrats will probably use the "we need more documents" dodge to avoid an outright filibuster, (web site) Roberts will surely be confirmed in the end. One almost has to feel sorry for the Democrats, pushed into this fight by their own base. It's just another indication that the once-great party is losing coherence as various special-interest groups try to use them (web site) to pursue their separate agendas.

The Left dislikes Roberts because he's Conservative. That goes without saying, as they seem to hate anyone to the ideological right of Michael Moore these days. The far Right, on the other hand, distrusts Roberts because he's a relative unknown. Ann Coulter wrote, "Stealth nominees have never turned out to be a pleasant surprise for conservatives. Never. Not ever." She's right about that -- after all, Justices Souter, Kennedy and O'Connor all turned out to be huge disappointments to the Republicans who nominated and voted for them. I'm not sure I'd place Roberts in the category of "stealth nominee," however. If nothing else, he's already been in DC for years, and is less likely to have his head turned by the political atmosphere.

No one will learn anything about Roberts' judicial philosophy from the hearings that can't be discovered in his previous decisions and history. Endless questions regarding how he might rule on variations of hypothetical abortion cases is likely to take up most of the Senate's time. Those who do the best job of looking tough and serious about protecting the "right" to kill unborn children as an easy means of post-coital birth control will make a few points with the far-Left base, however. That's what the power of the United States Supreme Court has come to mean to Liberals -- it's merely a way to keep in place bad court decisions that created or altered rights and laws without going through the Legislative and Executive branches. Anything that threatens to return control to the people or their elected representatives -- as mandated by the Constitution -- threatens them.

The only thing about a Supreme Court Justice's personal beliefs that should matter is how well he can put them aside to do his job. The Supreme Court was created to oversee the rulings of lower courts, to ensure that our rights, and the limits on government set forth in the Constitution, are not violated. Only the elected branches of the government are supposed to enact laws and change the Constitution when necessary. Instead, the Supreme Court has increasingly become the author of autocratic change, bypassing the Constitution they are supposed to uphold. President Bush promised to appoint Supreme Court Justices, should he have the opportunity, who would return to the principles enshrined in the Constitution. Hopefully, Judge Roberts is that kind of person.

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