Historically, it was normal for Senators of the opposing party to vote to confirm nominees who disagreed with them philosophically, but were arguably qualified.
All that changed with Judge Bork. Bork was SUPER-qualified - one of the acknowledged best legal minds in the country - and yet Democrats attacked him with lies and nonsense ("...out of the mainstream..."), and torpedoed his nomination. Since then, the gentleman's consideration has largely been stopped.
KBJ is a nominee (like Kagan and Sotomayor) with a figurative asterisk beside her name. Her legal career is just as notable for its affirmative action taint as for her meteoric rise, and it was entirely appropriate to dig deeply into the few opinions where her actual judicial philosophy was made manifest. This was also made necessary by her phony claims of Constitutional fealty, which we all know are false.
It would have taken some very prominent, very outrageous legal findings to raise enough outrage among the GenPop, and her apparent soft spot for kiddie-porn felons doesn't reach that level.
So in all likelihood we will be stuck with yet another knee-jerk Leftist voice on the USSC, someone who will substitute her version of the Constitution when necessary, to achieve the desired result.
Thank God for Donald J. Trump.
www.latimes.com
