Supreme Court Trivia

Some people claim that Bush is to blame for the strict bi-partisanship that Democrats are showing to every Supreme Court nominee. Liberals would argue that it's really the fact that he first stole the election, lied about the war, and in the process, he's divided America and that's the real reason that right now, only right now, are they choosing to be especially partisan.

Don't believe it. Democrats have always been this partisan, at least over the past 36 years. If we just look at Supreme Court nominees, we can find evidence that Democrats have always been this radical, and some would say, um, mean-spirited. If we look at the last 15 Supreme Court nominees (excluding Alito) over the last 36 years, by my addition, there have been arguably 7 conservatives, 6 liberals, and 2 middle of road guys (O'Connor, Kennedy). On average, conservatives have been given 37 no votes, liberals have been given 3.6 no votes, and the middle of roaders zero no votes. Also, the only 3 rejections over this time period were for conservative candidates. It is likely that the Alito nomination will show at least an average number of no votes once again for conservative candidates.

Does this sound like Democrats are being open-minded? In part I blame Republicans for not fighting back, as Republicans have held the presidency for 24 of the last 36 years. And if Republicans are not willing to fight back, Democrats are smart enough to take advantage. However, I'm also glad that Republicans have at last begun to fight.