Jeffrey Rosen: "Justice Scalia may be a brilliant bomb-thrower, but has failed in his attempts to build coalitions and bipartisan majorities."
Umm, yes. I don't know where this notion started, but it's silly. All things considered, I'd much have another Bill Brennan on the Court--who combined staunch liberalism with warmth and persuasiveness. More than anyone else, Brennan was responsible for halting the Burger Court's rolling back of civil rights rulings. I don't really know if there's another Brennan out there--even Eisenhower didn't know that Brennan would be Brennan, because otherwise Ike would never have picked the guy--but that's what liberals should want. Not a prickly absolutist who pushes moderates away.
I suppose that this is another way for a lot of bloggers to say that they want a bona fide liberal on the court. Sotomayor isn't that, I'll agree. But Obama will have more picks, and it would be good to have one or two of them on there, if only to improve the level of debate within the Supreme Court.
