What should Bush do?

I've thought about this today and had a few brief interactions, but I say Bush should go moderate. A long fight on this one will be beneficial to no one, and I would put to the current California situation where both Arnie and the State Congress have low approval ratings up as a perfect example of two sides disagreeing to the point of inaction and public dissatisfaction.

Will he do it? That I'm not so sure about. And while I think a hard conservative nomination and battle would be politically bad for Bushie in the mainstream, I'm not sure how much he cares anymore. His agenda is going nowhere, and his approval ratings have hung under 50% for most of his second term. A couple of extremist appointments to the court would make his a GOP legend, and his partisan nature makes me think that may be enough for him. Nothing has changed the fact that he's perfectly happy representing his part of America and ignoring the rest of us.

A quick victory for Bush on this one would help put some steam in his ship, if you will, and offer him some momentum on policy and reinforcement of the long missing "uniter" tag that he bandied around for a while. And that could only be good for his image and American's views of him, which lately have been not-so-good.

Quite honestly, I'm not sure which to wish for, and as everyone else has said, it will be a fun summer to watch. I only hope that this battle does not distract Democrats from fund raising for the men and women who are running in 2006. While a conservative Supreme Court would definitely be bad, a three branch stronghold by the GOP would be even worse.

*UPDATE* IF anyone cares, I'm on the side of The Talent Show Online Magazine on this one.

In fact, one of the things I noticed today watching the news channels (aside from their love of Robert Bork, for some reason) was that Democrats had their message ready to go and it was framed pretty well. A moderate for a moderate. It just sounds fair.

Meanwhile, Republicans asked for a fair and even process. And Democrats agree, saying the fair process involves a tit for tat exchange. Our "frame" actually incorporates theirs and takes it further. And I think that will help, in the long run.