No More "Stealth" Nominees

Robert Novak assesses the Alito hearings.

As also suggested recently in the New York Times (amazingly enough), Novak concludes that the hearings showed that there is no need to nominate conservatives without a track record on abortion or other issues. What matters is what should matter, a nominee's qualifications, and "such stealthy games are not necessary, so long as charges cannot be dredged up about a nominee's personal life."

It turned out to be a very good thing for conservatives, in more ways than one, when President Bush pulled Harriet Miers' nomination. The President nominated a jurist of outstanding credentials and may have paved the way for similar nominees in the future.

Reader comments in various threads at Confirm Them, incidentally, rumor that the rumblings at the Supreme Court are that the next justice to retire may not be Ginsburg or Stevens, but Souter, who is said to have openly discussed a desire to retire when he qualified for his pension, which occurred last fall.