Teddy, Durban, Schumer, Leahy, Boxer – you know, all the people that wouldn’t have voted for anyone Bush nominated anyway, will all ask Roberts questions he will refuse to answer (rightly so). They will cry, piss, and moan about it – put their face in front of every camera they can find and say how Bush “has just gone too far.”

Then Roberts will be confirmed by a significant majority.

Bush did what he said he would – he nominated a true conservative. And guess what, he has the credentials for the job.

**UPDATE**

Here’s the announcement that aired earlier.

**UPDATE** 7/22/05

You know, I have to say I am impressed with the lack of vitriol coming from the Democrats as a whole. Yes, the special interest groups on both sides are going to yammer endlessly, but is it just me or do people seem to be largely ignoring them for a change?

Fox News is reporting that Judge John Roberts of the DC Circuit is Bush’s pick for the Supreme Court.

Looks like Karl Rove is going to have to sit out a couple of news cycles while the left conducts a melt-down over this subject instead. Darn.

The look of a man that knows something MoveOn.org doesn’t. There is another shoe here and I can’t wait until it drops.

**UPDATE**

And WHERE did Karl Rove hear that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA? THE MEDIA! More specifically, ROBERT NOVAK!

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief presidential adviser Karl Rove testified to a grand jury that he talked with two journalists before they divulged the identity of an undercover CIA officer but that he originally learned about the operative from the news media and not government sources, according to a person briefed on the testimony.

The person, who works in the legal profession and spoke only on condition of anonymity because of grand jury secrecy, told The Associated Press that Rove testified last year that he remembers specifically being told by columnist Robert Novak that Valerie Plame, the wife of a harsh Iraq war critic, worked for the CIA.

Rove testified that Novak originally called him the Tuesday before Plame’s identity was revealed in July 2003 to discuss another story.

That second shoe just hit Chuckie Schumer right-square between the eyes.

I am sure that Scott McClellan is a really nice guy – and that is the problem.

Read the transcript here. He just doesn’t have the ability to verbally slap the press when they need it.

Now pardon me – I need to take a shower to get rid of that dirty feeling I have after having linked to anything written by Oliver Willis.

Can I get a hearty “A-MEN!” Ryan James has the voting breakdown on Janice Rogers Brown as well as the cloture vote on William Pryor.

I am still hoping William Myer somehow makes it on to the 9th Circus Court of Appeals, but I don’t think Frist has the gumption to try.

Why, when Harry Reid says so, silly. Didn’t you know that?

WASHINGTON — The vote on John Bolton to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has been blocked, with Democrats trying to force the White House to release long-sought classified information about the controversial nominee, or perhaps to pick someone else for the job.

Republicans were not able to muster on Thursday the 60 votes needed to stop debate on Bolton’s nomination despite support from two Democratic senators who had been instrumental in recent negotiations over judicial nominees.

Although Democrats claimed the move did not constitute a filibuster, Republicans said it sure looked like one.

“John Bolton, the very first issue we turned to, we got what looks to me like a filibuster,” Frist said, adding that the matter soured the air of cooperation the two parties’ centrists forged just days ago after months of wrangling over judges. “It certainly sounds like a filibuster … it quacks like a filibuster.”

[...]

“We’re not here to filibuster Bolton, we’re here to get information on Bolton,” Reid said.

Bullsh*t. Cloture votes don’t fail if there is no filibuster. You are digging for dirt in a lame-ass attempt to derail a nominee that would otherwise be confirmed.

The party of “NO!” strikes again. The roll. And before some looney lefty starts screaming that Frist voted “No” on cloture – he had to change his vote because the Senate rules say that only someone on the winning side of the vote can call for another vote later, thus Frist changed his vote from “Yes”.

Everyone just chill out. That pretty much sums it up. Although I am disappointed that Frist didn’t actually make the Democrats filibuster and I was initially pretty pissed at McCain, the Democrats are pretty well backed into a corner by setting the bar for “extraordinary circumstances” by allowing people they claimed were extremist and unqualified to get confirmed.

I can live with this.

And it is about damned time.

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Priscilla Owen as a federal judge, ending a four-year effort by Democrats to derail one of President Bush’s prime judicial nominees.

The vote was 56-43 in favor of sending Owen to the federal bench. Rhode Island Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee opposed her confirmation. Democratic Sens. Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana voted for Owen. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, one of the 14 negotiators who sought to allow Owen’s vote and Democrats’ to maintain the filibuster option, did not vote. (ed. note – emphasis mine)

Hell, even former Grand Kleagle Byrd voted to confirm her. Lincoln Chafee can kiss his Senate seat goodbye next election, I imagine; the GOP will likely run someone against him.

On to Bolton and Janice Rogers Brown!

I don’t know if you have been watching or listening to the start of the judicial nominee debate this morning, but it sounded to me like Reid & Kennedy were doing their damnedest to head off starting the debate on Owens & Brown by offering to start on other nominees the minority finds acceptable. That doesn’t smell of high principles to me – it smells of fear…well, and the scotch and/or bourbon Teddy is likely sweating out of this system this morning.

I do not believe they are going to filibuster a single one of these judicial nominees. There is simply too much at stake for them with the Supreme Court vacancies that will surely open before Bush leaves office.

Who said the following?

“I’ve resisted pronouncing a sentence before guilt is found….I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials.”

[...]

“I think he’s guilty . . . of taking trips paid for by lobbyists, and of campaign-finance violations during his manipulation of the Texas election process.”

Read more…