Judicial Politics
I had a very interesting morning at the Day Job. The DLC's think tank, the Progressive Policy Institute, held a forum on the changing politics of judicial nominations, featuring Stuart Taylor of National Journal, Jeffrey Rosen of George Washington University and The New Republic, and yours truly.
PPI's Will Marshall moderated and introduced us, and after citing Taylor and Rosen's impressive legal resumes, mentioned my law degree from the University of Georgia and said: "It's good to have some kudzu among the ivy here today." After some consideration, I decided to take that as a compliment.
It fell to me to serve as the defender of Democrats who voted against Roberts' nomination, and, more generally, to remind everyone of the real roots of the recent polarization of judicial nominations, in the devil's bargain the GOP has made with the Cultural Right. I also took issue with the idea that it would be just peachy keen for progressives if abortion policy were returned to Congress and state legislatures.
If you're interested, the forum will probably be offered up to insomniacs at some point this weekend over CSPAN or CSPAN2. Or you can check out the streaming video available via CSPAN3. If you do, please kindly ignore my face-made-for-radio and listen to what I said. I did wear a cool red-white-and-blue donkey tie.
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