John Roberts...could (will) do worse.

Is John Roberts qualified to sit with the Supremes? Absolutely, he is a brilliant lawyer and has served competently as a federal judge. Could we do better? Absolutely. Could we have done worse? Oh yeah, big time...and we will! On a personal level, the best thing about the Roberts nomination is that he graduated from law school the same year as me and everyone is commenting on how young he is! Back in the ancient days of my youth, federal judges were generally vetted and recommended by a time honored process run by the ABA. The ABA sent a list of well qualified judges and lawyers to the White House and the President made his choice. While not a perfect process, it did help many of the giants of American jurisprudence ascend to the bench. This started to change under Nixon...surprise! ("Halderman, add these commies from the ABA to the enemies list.") He nominated two ideologues for Supreme Court vacancies (one of whom, as I seem to recall, later was arrested on morals charges) who were rightly rejected by the Senate, and the partisan gauntlet was thrown. Have the Democrats abused the process to keep otherwise qualified judges out for partisan reasons? Yup, but Republicans have made it into a bloodsport. And so, we now have a nominee who can very likely sit on the court for 3 decades who has the basic skills needed for the job but whose main qualification is that he's been a judge for only two years. Such a short term results in a very short paper trail and so little ammunition will be available to those Senators who may want to see a more moderate nominee. This approach backfired on the adult Bush when David Souter, a supposed conservative with a short trail as a state judge in New Hampshire, turned out to be a solid moderate voice on the court. Republicans are not taking any chances this time. Are Republicans worried that Roberts might go over the dark side of moderation? Not likely, the guy clerked for Rehnquist.
Why Roberts? It's a brilliant political move and sets them up for the real firestorm to come. Roberts will be easily confirmed and establishes a safe conservative seat. The next couple openings will likely cut into the moderate side. After all Stevens is 85, and others are past or approching their 70s. All moderates will be replaced by die hard conservative women and/or minorities. Enough Senators will be hard pressed to oppose such nominees given the lack of diversity on the bench. Once these conservatives have taken over the Court, the radical Right will get what they paid for when they got their boy in the White House. As that Court eats away at all the progress that has been made in the past 50 years, the most notable of which will be overturning Roe, maybe then the sleeping electorate will wake up and realize that the Republican party does not represent their values and Democrats will sweep back into power and start the long process of repairing the damage that is to come.