failure

You have to admit one thing: this president sure has gall. In the aftermath of the Katrina fiasco, with an administration that has failed unlike anything American government has ever seen, this administration perceived as nothing but a good ole boy network of W's buddies - "Brownie, you are doing a heck of a job!" - is now really the time to appoint a crony to the Supreme Court bench?

Listen, there is no way I was going to be a fan of Bush's choice. But he won the election and not the candidate I would have preferred, and that is the way these things work. But surely we as a nation could come up with someone with a record? Someone who had been a judge? If not, someone with a distinguished academic career, a Constitutional scholar perhaps? Even a politician, someone who has had to face the voters a few times and therefore knows how the decisions will play in the real world?

Instead, we get none of these, but the Bush family lawyer. She is a corporate lawyer, climbed to the top of her firm in Dallas (which, to be fair, is not exactly a hotbed of progressivism, so a woman doing that is still a big deal), did some work with the state bar, maybe some pro bono stuff, and basically hitched her wagon to the Bush family in the 80's. This to me seems like the judicial equivalent of running the Arabian Horses Association. I have no doubt that she is a fine lawyer, but why would anyone think she has the mettle to be a Supreme Court Justice? Who is happy with this choice?

37 months and counting until the next election. Please please please deliver us a small-government, social liberal candidate with some charisma. There has to be one out there somewhere, right? Ideas anyone?