I believe, I believe, it's stupid but I believe

Gil is taking me to task over in my comments section about my disapproval of Roberts being elevated to the Supreme Court after being a judge for only two years. All things considered that's a pretty mild objection on my part, and I stand by it. (Of course, given that the president himself had absolutely no qualifications for the job before he stole it, it's not like I would expect that to matter to him.)

What Gil might really be reacting to, rather than my tepid criticism of Roberts, is that my underlying problem with this nomination is not that he lacks experience, nor his judicial record or beliefs, or even  his conservatism. No, it's  the profound mistrust I have of the guy who appointed him. And you know, I'm sick of feeling that way.

I hate having a president I so utterly despise and mistrust, so much so that if he handed me a gift-wrapped box I'd call the bomb squad instead of opening it. And that is, I'm afraid, how I'd feel about anyone he nominated to the Court, that anyone W would want to appoint is definitely someone who has gone over to the Dark Side, no matter how virtuous they appeared at first glance. So much so, that when I felt a stirring of hopefulness after reading some blogging on this over at Next Hurrah, my first reaction was to suppress it. So in the hope of relieving just a bit of my aching cynicism:

All accounts of Roberts are that personally he's a very decent man. Courteous, well-respected, a devout Catholic, hard-working, solicitous of others' opinions, and warm toward those with whom he disagrees.  In short, personally he's described as rather like Justice Anthony Kennedy.  It's probably hoping for too much for a George W. Bush appointee to the court to not be a rightwing lunatic.  And as I said, I'm not convinced that Roberts isn't a winger.  But the lack of anger is a sign that maybe, just maybe, he's a man capable of stepping out of his own angry perspective and exercising the empathy and moral imagination that one would hope from a member of the United States Supreme Court.

I really want to keep the good thought here, but I don't blame myself for my cynicism. Bush came into office with blood on his hands and has done nothing since but more of the same, on a bigger and uglier scale. He's earned my disrespect and mistrust a thousand times over.

But the truth is,  I do want to be an idealist and not a cynic. I swear I do. I don't think just because someone is a conservative they are evil or  wrong. I can live with genuine conservatism. What I can't live with is right wing extremism, reactionarism, and mean-spiritedness.

So I'll try, for Gil and the folks at Next Hurrah, to be objective on Roberts, to consider the possibility that he's a conservative and not a right wing ideologue. I am not saying I'll swallow the Kool-aid, but maybe tonight before I go to bed I'll recite a few minutes of  "I believe, I believe, it's stupid but I believe."

Unless I happen to watch the news in the meantime, and get angry all over again.

Comments

[Gil.]

Bless you, my child. Enjoy your Koolaid. And just remember, once he's appointed, he's free of Bush. And you, too, of course, but that's beside the point. (eg)

[gina]

I understand your perspective on this, Christie, and I don't trust Bush, either. But when David Boies has good things to say about Roberts ... well ... you just have to give the man the benefit of the doubt.

[Emily]

I, too, couldn't help thinking that the entire announcement has some sinister plot behind it, especially when I read that Ann Coulter is critical of this choice. Though I do think Republicans tend to eat their own on a regular basis, I figured any right-wing criticism for this announcement was planned in advance to make Roberts look more palatable to liberals. I figure with Bush in the White House for 3 1/2 more years, there's no way to avoid his appointees on the Supreme Court unless he is miraculously impeached for lying about the war... thus I am opting for hope about this guy.

[Christie]

This is interesting too... not just Boies but LAWRENCE TRIBE is optimistic:

Roberts Another Souter?