Pay No Attention to that Man Behind the Curtain

The Bush Administration, understandably desperate to get the media talking about anything other than Karl Rove and Valerie Plame, decided to announce Justice O'Connor's replacement much earlier than they had previously planned, and in primetime no less.

The man of the hour is Judge John G. Roberts of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Roberts, not surprisingly, is quite conservative, a Federalist Society guy, but one who is clearly well qualified for the Court. Unless Roberts has skeletons in his closet, I expect he'll be fairly easily confirmed. Democrats would be wise not to try to filibuster this nomination. It won't look good, and frankly, things could be much worse. Bush is very conservative, and so is the Senate. It was never very realistic to think that a moderate would be nominated. Personally, I'd much rather see an intelligent, qualified conservative on the Court than an undistinguished run-of-the-mill moderate, like Gonzales. I think everyone considered for a spot on the Supreme Court should have to pass the "clerk test," i.e., they should be at least as smart as the clerks that'll be working for them. As I'm sure you all know, Supreme Court clerkships are incredibly prestigious positions; only the very top students from the nation's elite law schools are selected. Roberts clearly passes this test. He was a clerk himself (for Rehnquist) and, by all accounts, is an incredibly bright guy. Gonzales would not have passed this test, nor would Janice Rogers Brown nor a number of other people who were mentioned as possible nominees. Supreme Court selection should be based on merit, not nepotism.

Am I thrilled that Roberts will be our next Supreme Court Justice? No, but only because I likely will disagree with him on some important issues. It's pretty difficult, however, to argue that he's not qualified or not deserving of the honor.

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As for the man behind the curtain (I'm referring to Rove in case I lost you), he may be out of the spotlight for a little while, but there's reason to think he's still worried. Murray Waas, citing sources close to Fitzgerald, suggests that Rove is very much at the center of the leak investigation. According to Waas, Rove did not disclose his conversation with Matt Cooper in his first FBI proffer session, leading prosecutors to think Rove was lying and misleading them. The special counsel's office was apparently also skeptical of Rove's claim that he learned about Plame from journalists, which, as I speculated before, was why they were so determined to secure testimony from Cooper and Miller and why they are so interested in the State Department memo. None of this looks very good for Rove. It certainly seems as if the veracity of Rove's story has, at least at one point, been the principal focus of the investigation. He better hope that he told the whole truth and nothing but, or he may soon be facing an indictment .