Ought to be confirmed.

Under our system, the President gets to nominate and the Senate confirms. Since the Republican Party controls both the White House and the Senate, they would be perfectly within their Constitutional rights to put Jennifer Love Hewitt to the Supreme Court.

The Democrats can’t, under our system, derail a nominee.

That said, what they can do is hold the Republicans responsible for their choices and increase their chances to seize control of the White House and/or Senate.

And the Democracts are screwing the pooch on this one.

Screaming about Roe and civil rights won’t shift public opinion that far.

They ought to be screaming about Kelo. That’s an issue that could move the middle class, were it ’splained.

Kelo’s use of eminent domain to render private property insecure in the face of big developers was decided 5-4. Both O’Connor and Rehnquist voted on the side of the angels on this one. So the current vote, should another eminent domain case come before the court again, would be 5-2.

If Roberts is willing to show judicial deference to legislative prerogative, the only defence we will have against rapacious developers will be the right action of state legislators who depend on… developers for campaign contributions.

We need to get pro-private property judges on the court before Kelo becomes settled precedent.

Why aren’t the Democrats seizing on this issue? Eminent domain disproportionately affects the politcally unconnected poor. Middle class folks get nervous when you start talking about taking people’s houses. And many rich folks have a predisposition to protect private property. This is a win-win-win situation for the Democrats.

So you bombard Roberts with Kelo questions. He refuses to answer. In 2008 you argue that the American people ought to elect a President who will appoint justices that will protect private property.

But no, they’d rather grandstand for their core constituency that isn’t going anywhere anyway.