As a professor, I typically reserve my opinions on political matters. If students in my classes know what I believe, I need to do my job better. Likewise, I usually don’t make predictions about the political processes. But here are two exceptions.
1. John Roberts will be approved by the Senate next week, 61-39. All those voting against will be Democrats.
2. President Bush will nominate Janice Rogers Brown to succeed Sandra Day O’Connor as an associate justice. You will remember Californian Judge Brown was filibustered for two years from being appointed to a federal appeals court position until a compromise last spring. She previously had served on the California Supreme Court. The Wall Street Journal editorial page writes about that possibility today, and I think that’s telling.
The decision by Senate minority leader Harry Reid to vote against the approval of Judge Roberts indicates to the White House that he won’t support any candidate who won’t come out in support of the Roe v. Wade decision, which prohibited states from banning abortion. By nominating a black woman who’s obviously qualified he puts Reid and those like him in a no-win situation.