Nominees past
Much of the bile in our ideology-driven politics can be traced to the Democratic derailing of Judge Robert Bork in 1987. Unlike Sonia Sotomayor (see above), Mr. Bork, as a judge on the high-stakes U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, had never had an opinion reversed by the High Court.
Yet within 45 minutes of Mr. Bork's nomination, Sen. Ted Kennedy described "Robert Bork's America" as "a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors ", ad nauseam.
The Republican Party will not be confused with the heavenly host, but in a judicial-nomination debate it has never sunk to this level of filthy slander.
Dunk us
The editor of this page will be featured from 1 to 1:30 p.m. this Saturday in the Heritage Foundation dunking booth at Sophia and Charlotte streets. This is your chance to chastise him for his extremist politics, insufferable prose, and other gratuitous assaults on the innocent. Proceeds will go to the Rotary, an organization whose virtue is suggested by the fact that its membership does not include the aforesaid editor.