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Maybe a word of appreciation for the Bush administration would be in order. You're ready enough to slam them when they do wrong, why not praise them when they do right, and succeed by doing so?

And no, I doubt the Left is abandoning its death grip on abortion.
CPA | Homepage | 01.31.06 - 12:29 pm | #

Note that Alito was confirmed by exactly the same margin by which Bork was defeated. Sweet!
Seamus | 01.31.06 - 12:44 pm | #

Appears here that those most zealous about maintaining legal termination of unborn tend to be above age of procreation. Largely gray of hair, wrinkly, multiple bifocals. Hanging onto orthodoxy to very end. While a younger generation- aka Those Who Weren't Aborted- increasingly taking a negative stance. Perhaps thought arises in some hmm I'm here many others aren't. Dunno if our new Justice Alito will be the straw that breaks Roe's back. But as technology, medicine, other trends going faster and farther than our lawgiving class-legislators, bureaucrats, lawyers- can absorb. Genetics not even a real science way back on 1/22/73. Now it provides evidence that makes the graying anti-abort bloc fraidy-scared.
Gerard E. | 01.31.06 - 12:54 pm | #

This gives Bush some momentum going into
tonights State of the Union speech.
DavidW. | 01.31.06 - 1:04 pm | #

I would not be shocked to see a guy like Souter or Kennedy decide to change their views on abortion. Roberts and Alito can be pretty convincing. The fact that the issue dominates the supreme court and fills the appointment process with so muc political game playing may make it appealing to kick the issue back to the political arena. Then the court would do it's work in peace. Only lawyers would care what goes on there.

Souter? Never. He's gone from being pretty conservative when he first was placed on the court to being quite liberal now. Anthony "Flipper" Kennedy might be the seventh or eighth vote to overrule Roe and Casey, but he'll never ever be the fifth.
Publius | Homepage | 01.31.06 - 1:12 pm | #

The GOP really delivered the goods this time.

Even Specter voted to confirm. How 'bout that?
mulder | 01.31.06 - 1:16 pm | #

Mark suggests that Souter, Kennedy, or O'Connor may yet turn out to be a pro-life justice. I don't know about Souter or Kennedy, but I am absolutely certain that O'Connor won't. She is, you know, retired. As of today.
Joel | 01.31.06 - 1:43 pm | #

Don't gloat. Don't gloat. Don't gloat.....oh, heck YIPPIE, the good guys finally won one.
Ed Peters | Homepage | 01.31.06 - 1:46 pm | #

Joel:

No. Mark wonders if Alito or Roberts will turn out to be Kennedy/Souter/O'Connor. I don't think they will, but we won't know till they are tried.
Mark Shea | Homepage | 01.31.06 - 1:53 pm | #

As a sometime griper, I'll say it: nice to see the good guys pick the right fight and see it through. Pray that it aids the unborn.
Max | 01.31.06 - 2:01 pm | #

Kennedy may be the reverse flipper since he was once known to be somewhat cnservative when he joined the court but is evidently influenceable by stronger minds and "grew" in the job. Maybe in this case, stronger pro life minds a la Scalia, Roberts and Alito convince him to change. Wouldn't it be something if a five vote all-Catholic majority someday reversed Roe or made it inoperable.
Arnold | 01.31.06 - 2:04 pm | #

Isn't Kennedy the infamous "sweet mystery of life" justice? I don't know that his intellect is strong enough to change.
c matt | 01.31.06 - 2:14 pm | #

I look for the old codger Stevens to retire. He's the only Justice still on the court who was there when Reagan became president.

It's interesting that Bush, a Methodist, has named two Catholics in a row to the Court (not counting the Church Lady fiasco, of course).
Sean P. Dailey | Homepage | 01.31.06 - 2:26 pm | #

Hurdle No. 1 - find suitable Rhenquist replacement: Done.

Hurdle No.2 - get R replacement confirmed: Done.

Hurdle No.3 - find suitable O'Connor replacement: Done (eventually).

Hurdle No.4 - get O replacement confirmed: Done.

Hurdle No.5 - get pro-Roe seat open: Not done.

Hurdle No.6 - find anti-Roe replacement: Not done.

Hurdle No.7 - get anti-Roe replacement confirmed: Not done.

Hurdles 8,9 and 10 - get new replacements to actually vote to overturn Roe: Not done.

So we still have a lot of hurdles to go.
c matt | 01.31.06 - 2:31 pm | #

will be very interesting to see whether the Left is finally really abandoning its death grip on abortion.

If Richard Cohen of the Washington Post can be considered a sign, Mark, I think it is.

I can't remember exactly when, but sometime within the past three months he wrote a great piecen reconsidering abortion altogether.
John Farrell | Homepage | 01.31.06 - 3:00 pm | #

...meaning, he's still pro-choice, but realizes Roe is awful and it won't be a bad thing if it's overturned.
John Farrell | Homepage | 01.31.06 - 3:01 pm | #

John,

Mark linked to the Cohen column when it came out in October
Publius | Homepage | 01.31.06 - 3:14 pm | #

Both Alito and Roberts are pretty safe bets at least to cut back on Roe, and probably to overturn it. Alito is 55, Roberts is 51, and Clarence Thomas is 58. Five justices range in age from 67 to 73, with only anti-Roe vote, Scalia, among them. Pro-Roe Stevens is pushing 86.

Patience -- our time is coming.
Jim | 01.31.06 - 3:41 pm | #

I think at some point a justice who is pro-abortion will decide that upholding Roe simply isn't worth it anymore. Not worth it in the sham that must be engaged in that Roe, an intellectually indefensible decision, has anything to do with interpreting the Constitution; not worth it in the endless abortion litigation that clogs the federal courts; not worth it in the endless turmoil that Roe brings to our life as a nation; not worth it in the damage that Roe continues to do the prestige of the Supreme Court. I can imagine this happening if it comes down to a 5-4 split on yet another abortion case. Specter, and his idiotic chart of Supreme Court abortion cases, actually high-lighted the problem for the pro-aborts. 33 years and 38 cases later, and Roe is no more accepted than it was in 1973. Eventually some pro-abort judge will say enough is enough and vote to overturn Roe and send the issue back to the States and Congress.
Donald R. McClarey | 01.31.06 - 4:13 pm | #

I pray you are right, Jim. My hunch is GOP appointee Stevens will wait till a Dem is in office to retire, in which case a 50-something pro-abort will be nominated and then confirmed by the GOP Senate. Though some GOP Senators will vote no, most (even many who are sincerely and reliably pro-life) will swallow hard and defer to the executive branch just like they did with Breyer and Ginsburg, b/c the GOP plays by different rules than the Dems -- which is why the Dems keep winning this battle. Of course, I could be wrong and I hope I am. All that said, I am pleased that Bush is doing his best to appoint judges who are likely to overturn or chip away at Roe.
Mike Petrik | 01.31.06 - 4:19 pm | #

What you say is plausible, Don, so I am going to go with it. Why not -- life is better for optimists!
Mike Petrik | 01.31.06 - 4:21 pm | #

Just got through reading that Cohen piece on abortion. Chalk one more up for the laity doing what we called to be: the leaven in society.

It's a sign of the times when a pro-choicer has to come out publicly and honestly admit the failed logic in much of the abortion debate. And the fact that he quoted Prof. Robert George (a faithful Catholic - published in the NY Times no less)is just one example among millions showing where we laity can make a difference standing up to the Culture of Death.

Or, as John Paul the Great said: "If you are what you should be, you will set the world ablaze!"

Amen to that!
Dan R | 02.01.06 - 1:25 pm | #

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