Eminent Domain

Well, it looks like the line has been drawn in the sand...

...Chuck Schumer says that the single greatest failure of the Democrats as an opposition party was allowing Samuel Alito to join the Supreme Court.

"Judges are the most important," [Ed. Holy crap! I agree with Schumer on an issue.] said Mr. Schumer, who orchestrated the implausible Democratic takeover of the Senate last week. "One more justice would have made it a 5-4 conservative, hard-right majority for a long time. That won't happen."

From now on, all the President's judicial appointments will need to meet the requirements of Mr. Schumer, the Park Slope power broker who has happily accepted the mantle of chief architect for the Democrats' effort to build a majority for the 2008 elections and beyond.

Chuck's going to play hardball. I'm not surprised at all. He came off as whiny and unhappy in the Roberts and Alito hearings. Why? Because he didn't have the votes to stop them and he knew it. Now, he's got a slim Democratic majority in the Senate. He also might have a 10-8 advantage on the Judiciary Committee. The Republicans' first order of business better be to fight this 10-8 split. It should be 10-9, as it was from 2002-2004 when the Republicans had the same type of slim majority that the Democrats enjoy now. That vote may become very important in the next two years.

I've been really busy this week and haven't been able to spend as much time on the blog as I would like. Once I get this trial brief written, I will finish with the oh so thrilling parts 3 and 4 of my series on the post-election judiciary scene. Part 3 will focus on a potential Court vacancy. I will run through most of the candidates and try to figure out their chances. Part 4 will be my predictions about what President Bush will actually do on the judges issue in the next two years. Look for at least one of those posts by Friday. Also, I have three beer reviews on deck. Most of them should be up this weekend.