Peregrine

It's over boys and girls. We will now get a flood of Pickerings as federal judges, and the supreme court will get a few more Scalia clones.

Psycho Economist

I don't know... maybe the liberal judges will quietly refuse to retire until the Senate and White House are divided again. They can't get replaced with right-wingers if they're still on the bench.

That said, whenever a liberal judges does retire, we're that much more screwed.

The Other Michael

The problem is that there are what? 40 or so vacancies for the Federal judiciary already. Even if no one else retires, packing those slots could do a lot of damage in the long and short run.

cheers,
Michael

Toto

Don't mourn, organize.

Grumpy

On a more positive note, the prospects for war with Iraq just decreased significantly.

I mean, now that the objective has been accomplished, what would be the point?

Think of me when the White House reveals startling evidence of the non-threat of Saddam Hussein in the weeks to come.

4th Generation Atheist

There are still some who will work to block any serious erosion...there are still some Republicans who won't go along with the more extreme proposals, the Dems still have enough to filibuster if they have to (which they will, though) and plenty of things take more than just a simple majority in Congress to ratify. Plus, if they screw up badly enough in the next two years, we'll have a completely different gov't next time.

I'll gladly agree that on the domestic front (setting Iraq aside for now) things look pretty bad, and that these people will likely be absolute idiots should any new foreign issues arise. But we ain't in Nazi Germany (or Afganistan) yet.

doubtingt

The reality is that hardly any of the Demo Senators care about Separation and almost none of them would oppose a judge based on this issue.
Our only hope is that any judge that is anti-separation also happens to be far enough right on issues that Demos care about that they will block the judge for those reasons (i.e., Roe v Wade, affimative action).

galiel

Actually, we're far more screwed than that. Reinquist and O'Conner have both indicated that they would resign when assured of a Republican taking their place. Before you cheer too loudly, know that there are folks being contemplated that would make Reinquist look like Jesse Jackson.
Also, liberal Stevens is the oldest Justice at 82.

American Agnostic

It's a lose but it's not as bad as you say. Remember that there are a number of republicans who are moderate. If Bush proposes anything too radical then the moderate republicans will go against it. The GOP victory is important but it doesn't them free riegn. They have to make their policies in such a way that they don't lose their support base. We'll certainly see conservative justices but I seriously doubt that the moderates will go along with any fundie pro-lifers.

Brad Messenger

Democrats still have the numbers to filibuster a nominee they find too conservative. They were using this strategy before the Jefford's defection. While they cannot use the quiet maneuver of delaying hearings on Bush nominees, they still have power in the confirmation process.

Also, we shouldn't forget that Souter, O'Conner and Kennedy were all appointed by conservative presidents and have not acted in their image. Given recent presidents' nomination of candidates with little paper trail, they have less ability to judge their ideology.

I would prefer a divided government, but I am not as concerned about the future judiciary composition as you guys seem to be.