View From the Sky

Obviously, Judge John Roberts is topic number 1 in the blogosphere. The biggest questions about him are:

• Why was he introduced now? The process seemed to have been moving a different pace until yesterday. Could the increasing volume on the Rove/Novak/Plame scandal have anything to do with the sudden acceleration from by the end of next week to last night? The Daily Kos has a nice perspective on this.
  
• How conservative is he? Obviously, the Bushies were not about to nominate Ralph Nader or Al Sharpton. Kos (with additional material from Armando) weighs in on this as well. My take is that he is exactly what the Fox News crowd has been hoping for. He is a former coporate attorney who has opposed environmental protection. He has worked in previous republican administrations, arguing that Roe v. Wade should be overturned. And, he has both some experience on the bench and yet not enough to have a long record that canbe used to understand his judicial philosophy (although there is the terror prisoners case).
• What will the process look like? The armies of the extreme (on both sides) have already begun loading their arenals. And, I think that even if W had nominated God herself, there would have been strong opposition. That said, I think that if Judge Roberts answers the questions, including the tough ones that Democrats will use to show his right-wing tendencies, and does not try to hide, he should make it on a party-line-ish vote.

Finally, Media Matters has an interesting piece, posted before the nominee was known, about Top Supreme Court Myths.