Turn Your Head and Cough, Mr. Roberts

The media gods are reporting that Bush's nominee will be US Court of Appeals Judge John Roberts, a man who was confirmed to his current position about a 2 years ago. If true, he's about to undergo the world's most thorough media anal exam.

From RealClearPolitics.com: Biography Resumé Profile Wikipedia Background

I'm a little surprised about this nomination because for one thing, he's a he, and not a she. I'm sure the President is under a lot of pressure from all kinds of groups to put another woman in that seat. He's also white, and there has been much speculation about an Hispanic or Black candidate. However, there is no affirmative action on the Supreme Court, so the seat goes to whomever the president appoints and the Senate confirms.

Looks like the earlier speculation was a brilliant head-fake after all.

Hugh Hewitt describes Judge Roberts as a friend, and a "great pick". That's good news for us conservatives. Having only recently been confirmed to the Circuit Court, there won't be much new mud for the Dems to drag up, and given their fairly recent confirmation of him to the federal bench, it will be a little tougher for them to justify a filibuster. He was confirmed on a unanimous voice vote for his current position. There will still be a fight, to be sure, but the Dems will be fighting unarmed.

Roberts has gone on record to oppose Roe v. Wade, so expect the pro-abortion crowd to be apoplectic. They'll be putting heavy pressure on their pocket Dems to fight this guy.

That includes a brief he wrote for President George H.W. Bush's administration in a 1991 abortion case, in which he observed that "we continue to believe that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be overruled."

Roberts won the case -- Rust v. Sullivan -- in which the Supreme Court agreed with the administration that the government could require doctors and clinics receiving federal funds to avoid talking to patients about abortion.

By the way, John Roberts's wife, Jane, has served as executive vice president of Feminists for Life (h/t Bench Memos).

Roberts is only 50 years old, which means he'll have the opportunity to influence the court for many years. He's also described as a very likeable guy, which should help during the confirmation hearings. One of the things that killed Bork was his surly demeanor, and Roberts doesn't have that problem. Sounds like a very good pick to me.