Roberts Hearings

I've gotten to watch a few hours of the confirmation hearings for John Roberts over the last few days, and have come to a conclusion, the Democrats on the committee have a sole purpose of getting him to answer a question he's previously refused to answer. Their inability to do that over the last couple of days led them today to try and get him to say he doesn't support education, is a bigot (basically), favors large corporations over anyone, and anything else they could call a horribly "out of the mainsteam opinion".

Dick Durbin (who after these hearings, I'm even more ashamed represents my state on that committee) spent 20 minutes trying to get Judge Roberts to say he wanted illegal aliens tossed out of schools, based on a memo to the Attorney General stating that the Solicitor General didn't follow the AG's guidelines in presenting the case. Mr. Durbin has been called a very bright legal mind, but his questioning represented the lowest form of partisan politician around.

Judge Roberts did a wonderful job on disputing the out of context interpretation that Mr. Durbin was trying to rope him into, and pointed out many of the folks who were probably disappointed that he didn't ignore his job and praise the decision were probably very happy when he did pro-bono work helping a convicted murderer with his appeals.

I'm hoping that folks who've only read talking point memos from liberal interest groups have actually watched him. Those who are still able to think on their own will appreciate his methods, and thoughts on the law. Those who are tied to the left into believing anyone Bush nominates is evil will only complain he won't give specific views on current cases, (regardless of the judicial oath he's taken).

After watching probably six or seven hours of the questioning I've come away with one opinion, the man always takes the same side, regardless of the case, and that side always seems to be the side of law. What else do you want in a Chief Justice?