It appears as though Roberts will slide into being an associate justice with little, if any, battle. Gary and I feel that we have all but given up before the battle has even begun. Democrats have not asked the man a single question and its all but decided that nothing is going to be done. The party does not seem to have a position nor does it seem to be searching for one.

As pointed out by some other bloggers, we need to frame the debate in how average lives will be changed by Roberts on the court. As the eminent domain case showed, Americans can care when the cases are shown to have a possible impact on their life. He is no doubt a qualified a man, but the average American seems to take little interest in how this nomination affects their lives. It is true that the politics of the Supreme Court are difficult to get down into 10 words phrases that apply to cases other then Roe vs. Wade, but that doesn’t mean we should have given up already.

Roberts is being lauded as the perfect candidate because he is not scary and ideological. However, he does have an ideology that shapes his decisions and we should be outlining that. As we let this nominee just waltz into his seat, we reinforce the idea that it is a presidential privilege to appoint whomever. This will have lasting ramifications in the coming years as other seats are vacated. I predict that each nominee will be more conservative then the last and it will become harder to fight an unknown future nominee as we so weakly fight this one.