Dick Morris on a second term strategy for Bush

Thoughts on a second term=The Hill.com=:
"This election was not won over abortion. It was won over the war on terror primarily and gay marriage secondarily. If the right attempts to twist its meaning to suit its purposes and use it to defang the checks-and-balances system, it will be guilty of its own form of imperial overreach. A three-percentage-point win will not sustain such an overturning of the system on which people of both parties rely to assure moderation."

Thus Dick Morris calls for continuation of the present de facto requirement that judges be confirmed by a supermajority of 60 senate votes and warns the president not to tamper with Roe v. Wade. He goes on to say that moving Clarence Thomas to chief justice would be acceptable to America, but filling the resulting associate justice vacancy with a justice of similar philosophy to Thomas and Rehnquist would not be acceptable.

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it: If Bush relents on the judicial front, especially with regard to the supreme court, a lot of those despised Christians who turned out in droves this year will stay home next time or cast a protest vote for some third party unless, and highly unlikely it is, the 2008 nominee is a red hot conservative. We've been burned on so many fronts, we need to see something good come out of this election.

Moreover, Morris overlooks two key facts. One is that a judge who reads the constitution for guidance rather than tea leaves, a judge who understands that the people have a right to let their religious views rather than the UN convention on human rights determine a question like homosexual marriage, will also be likely to substantially defer to state legislatures and congress on abortion restrictions, displaying the Ten Commandments and other issues. Second is that the pull of tradition, the disinclination to substantially disrupt settled law, is so strong among our sort of judges that an outright overturning of Roe is highly unlikely. And, people forget that at the time Roe was decided abortion was already legal in 16 states.