 By Dick Morris January 27, 2006
To the likes of Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) et al., the Supreme Court is a kind of super-Congress - nine special Senate seats - and the criterion for confirmation is agreement with the nominee on the key issues likely to come before the court. But to the American voters, the Supreme Court is above politics and ideology and confirmation should be awarded based on personal attributes such as integrity, intelligence, judgment, compassion, wisdom, maturity, fairness and temperament.  By Jeff Parker, Florida Today Distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons, Inc.
Of course, ideology is as important (if not more so) to conservatives as it is to liberals. But with the White House comes the ability to get men or women who share your ideology approved as long as they are objectively well-qualified. Bill Clinton learned that lesson when the Senate easily approved his nominations of moderate liberal Stephen Breyer and ultraliberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Republicans then, as with Democrats now, could not rally public opposition to a judge simply based on his or her ideology. The Robert Bork nomination failed, ultimately, not so much because he was a conservative but because his opponents managed to cast doubts on his temperament by engaging him in harsh rhetorical exchanges during his hearings. Clarence Thomas was not seriously opposed because of his conservatism but as a result of the allegations of Anita Hill that he sexually harassed her. The failure of voters to understand the role of ideology in court decisions seems to fly in the face of the knee-jerk conservatism of Antonin Scalia, Thomas and, during his tenure, Rehnquist and the automatic liberalism of John Paul Stevens and Ginsburg. But voters are not deluded; they simply do not see Roe v. Wade in quite the apocalyptic terms that both the left and the right do. To the vast middle of the American political spectrum, it is more important that a Supreme Court nominee be a good person with sterling credentials than be predictably for or against Roe v. Wade. But, in an even broader sense, voters are increasingly appalled at the growth of partisanship on Capitol Hill. Clinton's impeachment and the GOP government closures of the 1990s have left their legacy in the growing public impatience with shrill, blind partisan advocacy in their elected Congress. Their insistence on credentials and personal qualifications in Supreme Court nominees reflects their desire not to see this unappealing trait spread to the Supreme Court.
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