Here’s how the SCOTUS fight‘s gonna go down (via Matt) :
While some focused on whom Bush’s choice will be, others mapped out strategy for the period after he decides. Senate Republicans made plans to begin hearings as quickly as possible after the nomination, focused not on the candidate’s positions on hot-button issues but on legal credentials.
A Republican planning document provided to The Washington Post described the need to avoid disclosing the nominee’s “personal political views or legal thinking on any issue.”
This is the exact same tactic they’ve taken with the seven (of more than 200) judicial nominees that the Democrats blocked. In the face of perfectly acceptable questioning, they refuse to respond and declare the Democrats to be obstructionists. They’ll probably get away with it this time too, since even when the Democratic cooalition is its strongest, there are still enough DINOs in the Senate to break a filibuster.
The only way the GOP can get the American people to go along with their plans is through lies, rhetorical misdirection, and stonewalling. Cowards.