Gnomon is aware there are other more well-known, Bork-like judges that conservatives would love to see put on the bench, that they think there's no better time to try, and that it would be a noble Phyrric victory if they were ground into the dust of defeat. Our idealistic nature is attracted by that sort of thing as well.

But we would suggest that in his cagey Texas political style President Bush has found a way to do an end-run around fanatic Michael Moore liberals and get someone on the Court that he knows and her past history shows (but for which there is not much of a legal paper trail) is a conservative Originalist -- and deeply religious to boot. And a female, to balance out that meticulous and ravishing interpreter of the Consitution, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The reaction of the National Review, Rush Limbaugh and others reminds us of that moment when President Reagan came out of the White House with David Jacobson, one of the Lebonese hostages that had just been freed. We remember the press going wild and hounding the President with questions about whether there was a deal and what was really going on behind the scenes. He and the hostage were virtually begging them to stop because he was still trying to get out other hostages, but they just kept going on and on. That eventually led to Iran-Contra of course, which Gnomon still regards as a noble cause. The last hostage was not freed for five more years.

It would be quite sad if we lost the opportunity to put an Originalist judge on the Supreme Court because conservatives won't do what's necessary these days to get one past MoveOn.com liberals. But perhaps the President would have done better to first nominate Judge Roy Moore and let him be the much-coveted Phyrric victory before putting forth the name of Harriet Miers.