No Paper Trail? Dems Have Only Themselves to Blame

One of the first criticisms to come from the Dems on John Roberts is the fact that he's only been a judge for 2 years and hasn't got much of a paper trail for them to dissect. Well, according to John Fund of the Wall Street Journal, they only have themselves to blame:

He Tried to Create a Paper Trail, But Dems Wouldn't Let Him

Liberals are already bemoaning the fact that while they just KNOW John Roberts will be a dangerous reactionary if he's confirmed for the Supreme Court, there is precious little of a paper trail to prove it given his brief two-year tenure as a federal appeals court judge. But they have only themselves to blame for that.

John Roberts was first nominated to sit on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals by President George H.W. Bush in 1992, to fill the vacancy created by Clarence Thomas' elevation to the high court. But the Democratic Senate, sensing a victory in that fall's presidential election, stalled the nomination for almost a year and it died with President Bush's defeat.

Mr. Roberts got another chance at the court in 2001, when the second President Bush appointed him. But on the day that his hearing before the Judiciary Committee was scheduled, Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords left the GOP and handed control of the Senate and Judiciary Committee over to Democrats. They stalled Mr. Roberts' nomination for the next year and a half.

After Republicans finally recaptured the Senate in the 2002 mid-term elections, Mr. Roberts was finally confirmed on a unanimous consent vote. "The irony is that they could have had all the paper trail they wanted if they had just agreed to put him on the bench back in 1992 or even 2001," noted one Judiciary Committee staffer.

The lack of written opinions will make things tougher for Schumer, Leahy and others to declare Roberts to be "extreme". They'll have to really stretch each and every case to try and paint Roberts as out of the mainstream, a futile effort at best.