John G. Roberts Jr. - Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

You sunk my Battleship!

Don't you hate it when that happens. The President sunk the hopes of the Democratic left with his nomination of Justice Roberts. All the millions of dollars they have in their coffers just waiting to smear this nomination will go for not. Roberts will be confirmed, and by a large margin.

Among Democrats, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) may well be the most crucial voice in the Gang of 14. Republicans were pointing last night to a statement he made last week that appeared to say that he saw no justification for a filibuster of Roberts, but an aide said last night that he was misinterpreted and would wait for a fuller examination of Roberts's record before making any judgment about his suitability

The big question now is will the left keep their money for a fight down the road or will they spend it in a loosing effort to Bork Justice Roberts? They have to try, this nominee will swing the court to the right by enough to have those 5-4 rulings go the other way. The left can't take that chance. They must try to defeat Roberts. There will be the Alberto Gonzales should have been refrains from the left, and they will be on every morning show explaining how the President missed his chance to nominate a centrist.

Senator John Kerry,(reporting for duty) says that -

“The American people expect the Senate to fulfill its duty to conduct a thorough, independent review of any nominee, and I intend to do exactly that. I hope Judge Roberts and the White House are forthcoming about his qualifications, background and constitutional philosophy so the Senate can act with all the facts. There‚’s too much at stake to do anything less.‚”

Qualifications, background, constitutional philosophy, John? Were you asleep when he was confirmed unanimously by voice vote two years ago? He has been through the FBI full background investigation more than once. He was supported bya bipartisan group of legal experts in his confirmation hearing to the DC Circuit, what more do you want Senator?

This will be interesting and fun to watch the left spin this into something it is not.