Filibuster-ers, start your engines...

UPDATE 6:30 p.m. July 19, 2005: It's John Roberts, US Circuit Court of Appeal judge in DC. Per the People for the American Way and Nathan Newman (for latter, just check my links), he's pretty right wing as to labor issues, commerce clause, contract clause, etc. As I said if it was Edith Clement, filibuster-ers, start your engines. I hope the abortion issue doesn't become the litmus test to the exclusion of the other issues raised by Nathan Newman and People for the American Way. I'm still at work, but had to blog this...

MJF

Now for the old, no longer valid post from this morning (that's what I get for listening to right wingers speculate. D'Oh!)
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A web site called "Confirmthem.com," a project of a pro-GOP site, has the latest on Circuit Judge (from New Orleans) Edith Joy Clement, who is the likely nominee from the Cheney-Rove administration.

She is bad on civil rights, worse on commerce clause (which is the lifeblood of anyone who values our Founder's sense of nation building and sustaining, as well as anyone who values the New Deal), and is to the right of O'Connor on abortion (though possibly not willing to completely overturn Roe v. Wade).

I have to say this would be a brilliant move by the Cheney-Rove forces because she has no paper trail, but her husband is a known quantity to GOP circles.

The Alliance for Justice has its work cut out for it--and so do we.

And folks, the reason Rehnquist said he's not leaving yet is because he didn't want a "compromsise" scenario of "one moderate" for O'Connor and one "conservative" for Rehnquist. He'll continue to be a political operative more than a judge until his last breath.

Addendum: I realize I should say this: Why filibuster Judge Clement? Because the election was razor thin close in terms of popular vote (no "Ohio" and voting machine fraud arguments needed here) and replacing O'Connor with someone more conservative than even O'Connor is something a majority of Americans--including those some who voted for Bush--would not support. Also, most Americans, when polled, don't buy into the limits on legislative power that frames the commerce clause issue. Therefore, Democrats and Republicans like Specter, Collins, Chafee, et al. have a duty to filibuster Clement if, during the hearings, the positions attributed to her in the article cited at the beginning of this post are accurate. There is no reason to hide behind "she didn't supply with documents," etc. This is a straight up back in your face political response to a highly cynical administration. If Frist wants to go "nuclear" and blow up the filibuster, the fight will be on at that level, too. "It is what it is", as an ex-labor organizer and ex-SDSer often says.