There is a Specter haunting the White House

HoustonChronicle.com - Specter warns Bush on high court nominations:
"The Republican expected to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee next year bluntly warned newly re-elected President Bush today against putting forth Supreme Court nominees who would seek to overturn abortion rights or are otherwise too conservative to win confirmation."

The Bush White House pulled out all the stops to make certain conservative Republican congressman Pat Toomey would not defeat liberal incumbent Senator Arlen Specter in the primary last spring. They got what they wanted, six more years of Specter - and head of Judiciary, too.

If Specter succeeds in blackmailing the White House on judicial nominations, it will mean the almost certain defeat of the GOP in 2008. All those voters who said moral values rated high on their list counted on Bush putting up better judges than Kerry would. From the Ten Commandments to Christmas trees, from homosexual marriage to unrestricted baby killing, the federal courts are at the heart of the culture war.

The odds are the economy will tank when the real estate bubble collapses or we can't sell debt to Asians in sufficient quantity, or both. Deficits will continue whether taxes are raised or not and any social security fix will probably include some revenue enhancements. We may be able to extricate the bulk of our troops from Afghanistan and Iraq during this term, but the GWOT will go on. Nuclear proliferation in Iran, North Korea, and several other countries will continue to fester.

If we can't at least deliver a little bit on the moral issues by way of conservative judges, those nice church folks will take their marbles and go home. Bush wanted Specter, he got Specter. Now what?