Supreme Court Hand-Wringing

Now that O’Connor has announced her retirement, we can expect to see liberals rending their garments in terror that Bush will nominate a hardcore conservative to replace her. This would be a disaster, you see, because we need liberal justices to stand up for the right of suffering people to medicate themselves, and to face down the moneyed special interests that lobby for special privileges at the expense of the poor and disadvantaged. Oh, wait…

Don’t get me wrong. A court dominated by conservatives is a decidedly mixed blessing. But liberals shouldn’t pretend a liberal justice is clearly preferable to a conservative one even by their own standards. And besides, if they expect Bush to (purposely) nominate a liberal, they’ve been drinking the Kool-Aid. The best they can hope for is a stealth liberal, like the Bush 41-nominated Souter.