Qualifications
Suddenly faced with a second Supreme Court nomination, compounded by the vacancy being the Chief Justice’s seat, the President went for the unexpected and named John Roberts, previously his choice to replace Sandra Day O’Connor, as his selection for the Rehnquist robes. I know the ABA has rated Roberts as qualified for the original appointment, but I’d seriously question his nomination as Chief Justice, so I’m glad to hear Senator Harry Reid calling for more time and additional scrutiny. The guy’s been a federal judge – a judge at all – for only a couple of years, before which he was an ideologically suspect government counsel and trial lawyer, albeit with Supreme Court experience. It seems a mighty big step up to make him the top dog at this stage. Of course, it represents an easy choice for Bush: he doesn’t have to attempt a more polarizing nomination either to the additional vacancy or separately to the position of Chief Justice, and by not naming Scalia to the post, as I suspect was probably the more generally anticipated option, he makes an end run around at least some of the opposition. Bush still needs to fill an empty seat, but he may think he can put up one of his wing-nuts without generating a filibuster, Attorney General Alberto Torquemada, for example.

Meanwhile, as the fallout from New Orleans continues, every effort is being made to minimize the damage, unlike the administration’s actions before the storm. Fresh from shoe-shopping, that death’s head Condoleezza Rice, along with fellow ex-Cold Warrior Donald Rumsfeld, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Bartlett, are touring the area in advance of Bush’s second visit, with everyone staying mum on any criticism levelled at them from the Democrats, but alongside a concerted push towards blaming the Democratic administrations of the city of New Orleans and State of Louisiana. While these latter are not without blame, we shouldn’t forget the mismanagement of Bush’s federal government. This is the administration that claimed to recognize the need for greater coordination between agencies, but which has, as much through cronyism in its appointments as in its fundamental antipathy towards direct government management of infrastructure and services, consistently failed to put in place the conditions necessary to ensure smooth operations, whether in military deployments or in response to natural disasters. It’s past time the “age of spin” came to an end; we cannot trust these people.