The lady with the bound eyes is holding a scale. That scale has been tipping heavily downward on the far right side for many, many years. By Constitutional fiat, presidents come and presidents go, some in four years, all within eight. But federal judges and their decisions last for generations, some for multiples of generations. No sense of judicial equilibrium will be gained through the nomination of a candidate who is the least acceptable to Republican senators.
Thus no effort should be extended by the Obama administration to find one, and every effort must be made to nominate, then confirm, a candidate who will steadfastly opine on behalf of a quest to bring the scales more to genuine balance. Republicans have had their bullying way since Richard Nixon named William Rehnquist to the Court in 1972. Timidity and the desire for bipartisan comity, by either the administration or the Democratic senate majority, must be the first consideration disposed of. The louder that conservatives scream, the more qualified it is that the candidate likely is.
It's just impossible to balance a boulder with a pebble. We just cannot back down on this one. We just cannot give an inch.
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