Posted by
Always To The Right on Monday, August 18, 2008 2:16:51 PM
Goddard: “It seems he was for them before he was against them.” True enough, if you believe every vote
by a Democrat or Republican to confirm an opposing party’s nominee is
tantamount to saying they’d have nominated that person themselves. (Do
note, Scalia was confirmed 98-0.) I feel stupid even having to point
out that the considerations that inform a yes/no decision in the Senate
— “is this candidate acceptable?” — are entirely different from the
unlimited possibilities a president has when choosing a nominee — “is
this the best candidate we can find?” — but I guess I have to for
Goddard’s benefit, so there you go. Beyond the dopey gotcha here,
though, lies a serious point. I actually like the fact that McCain
voted to confirm Ginsburg and Breyer, not because I have any use for
either of them but because his vote was obviously based on legal
qualifications, not an ideological litmus test. Conservatives have
suffered grievously from the politicization of the confirmation process
(a point I made in the earlier post) and will only have it worse as
Congress turns a deeper blue. Having clean hands in this regard gives
President McCain moral leverage with the Senate vis-a-vis his own
nominees and political leverage over Obama right now as proof that he
was being the true bipartisan pol while Barry O was busy voting against
someone as ostentatiously qualified as John Roberts. I understand why
his campaign isn’t making a bigger deal of these votes, but as the base
comes around (which should be easier post-Saddleback) he can venture
further out on the limb in mentioning them. Provided they’re carefully
qualified, of course.