The fat lady has sung. With Senate uber-liberal Pat Leahy coming out in favor of confirmation of John Roberts as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and two of his Senate Judiciary Committee colleagues--Wisconsin Senators Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold-- following his lead, President Bush's first choice for the Supreme Court seems assured to suceed his former boss, William Rehnquist. What made Roberts palatable to three committee liberals makes him discomforting to scores of conservatives. If Roberts had a Constitutionalist record, or had made Constitutionalist statements to the committee, that indicated where he might come down on affirmative action, abortion, gay marriage, and other issues bound to come before the court, Leahy would be stridently against and conservatives would be confidently for.

Roberts's outstanding performance before the committee will hurt Bush's next nominee. Roberts raised the bar. The next nominee will not only have to outshine Senators (which is not hard), but will have to outperform Roberts (which is hard). But Roberts's graceful evasiveness will have sharpened the inquisitory techniques of Senate Democrats, as well. They'll all be out for blood next time, just as presidential hopeful Joe Biden was out for blood this time. By declining to fillibuster Roberts, and in fact providing many of his confirmation votes, Democrats will have awarded themselves a free pass to obstruct the next nominee. And it may matter little who that next nominee is, for they will likely sit on the court of Robert Bork, Clement Haynesworth, and Harrold Carswell, and not the court of Antonin Scalia, Stephen Breyer, and Anthony Kennedy.