thoughts for blog

thoughts on the judy miller thing:

well, she's out of jail. that's good. it's admirable that she stood by her convictions, and hey, it's even better that she's out of jail. the source in question turned out to be scooter libby, the vp's chief of staff (and how great a name is scooter? seriously.) this is probably good news for karl rove, but it might not be. would that i were able to hear grand jury testimonies up close and personal, but i can't. miller is, i think, to be commended for standing up for her beliefs and sticking by what she thought were the best journalistic ethics and we'll see what else gets dug up on this.

roberts: there's kind of a tie-in to the number 4 item on the list, but, he got through at a nice, big margin- the democrats apparently waiting to go insane until the next nominee gets pushed through. I did not know he was the youngest cj of scotus in like 200 years though. very, very young at fifty, so he's going to be around for a looooooooooooooong time. i was pretty blase about roberts. he didn't come across as a wacko (which i would have disliked) and he seemed intelligent and certainly able to handle the song and dance these guys have to go thru to get on the court quite well. we'll have to see where he lands on the ideological spectrum though. if he heads towards the scalia end of things (onion article) then life gets crazy and roe v. wade might be in trouble... he seemed to nod towards the idea that it was established precedent in law during his confirmation hearings though, so we'll have to see who bush nominates next and what the democrats do.

they have a bit more latitude this time 'round, specially with the administration on the back foot the way it is in the aftermath of delay, katrina and potentially something juicy out of this leak thing. but, on the other hand the same consequences still apply: i'm iffy on the whole judicial filibuster thing. it smacks of obstructionism to me, and despite having the best of intentions the republicans tagged the dems with that label and it could very easily get stuck if we get back to the whole 'nuclear option' business. (lol, and if there's one thing the gop does well, it's labelling their opponents.) so i think playing hardball with the next nominee could cut both ways. if bush appeases his social conservatives by nominating a hard-ass and the democrats play hardball... ? Hm. Hard to say. they could get slapped with obstructionim again, or they might be seen as standing up to the president's irrational, irresponsible choice. we'll have to see a. who he nominates and b. what the dems do. (name i keep hearing: harriet miers. will have to get more info on that.)