Who cares?

Contrary to what Pandagon suggests, the most important comment in this article about the 30-hour Senate anti-filibuster filibuster isn't the final comment, it's the one before it: "Who cares about judicial appointments?"

The fact that so many "average" Americans--the ones who will probably decide if Emperor Bush will keep his crown for four more years--don't realize how big control of the judiciary is to the right is, without a doubt, one of the more frightening realities of contemporary politics.

When the Democrats have been in office, the primary quality sought in the judiciary has been even-handedness--and hence the tendency to appoint from the center-left to center-right of the ideological spectrum. The right tends to appoint conservative ideologues, as is clearly seen from the nominees that have been going through in the last few years.

The main problem is that judges are appointed for life, while congress and the president are re-elected every few years. Thus, if you can keep control of one branch of government--say, the judiciary--for decades at a time, it makes it much easier to maintain control, so long as pesky problems such as incapacitation and death do not rear their ugly heads.