Let the Great Debate Begin

Reid urged the president to nominate Miers, whose withdrawal Reid says he laments. Now Reid deplores the Alito nomination because it was, Reid says, done without Democratic ``consultation.'' But it was during such consultation that, Reid says, he warned the president not to nominate Alito. So Reid's logic is that nothing counts as consultation unless it results in conformity to Democratic dictates.

When Reid endorsed Scalia for chief justice, he said: ``I disagree with many of the results that he arrives at, but his reason for arriving at those results are (sic) very hard to dispute.'' There you have, starkly and ingenuously confessed, the judicial philosophy -- if it can be dignified as such -- of Reid and like-minded Democrats: Regardless of constitutional reasoning that can be annoyingly hard to refute, we care only about results. How many thoughtful Democrats will wish to take their stand where Reid has planted that flag?

George Will