ENIGMA ROBERTS NOT GOOD CHOICE

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

I like US President George W. Bush. I would not want anyone else in the Oval Office. But this choice of Judge John Roberts just doesn’t add up.

If he’s 50 years old and has not left a "paper trail" to reveal who he really is, then what’s up? What kind of judge is he anyhow?

I’m not asking for a maverick nor a wise guy. That of course would not float for the Supremes. But this mild, mysterious persona just twists me into pretzel design and I don’t like that kind of pain.

So he’s handsome and courteous, well educated and well salaried. So he’s got the posh connections to right and left. What of it? So he’s a family man with pretty wife and two little cute children. What’s that got to do for conservatives jumping up and down for joy?

Frankly, I’m quaking right about now, the day after the super announcement from the White House.

I’m quaking because I just don’t trust the establishment and I think a lot of other Republicans don’t always trust it either. And by "establishment," I mean our own — the Republican Party.

It’s always a matter of testing the trust factor for we know that anything can change, anything can happen. Nothing’s guaranteed.

We’ve been over the delight followed by dismay and then disappointment roller coaster ride before — with all sorts of personages in public life. To go through all that one more time — especially when we have waited so long for one-of-our-own to sit on the highest court — does not a happy summer make.

By 50 years old, I had already dented a few thematic fenders by the convictions I held and also laid low some friends who decided I was their enemy. I had spoken up enough on certain issues to be in a definite category, particularly regarding matters of significance.

With Roberts, he has woven himself a fine fabric, so fine that it’s hard to get hold of, let alone blanket under. And that’s frightening on a cold night in January.

So all I can think as a conservative is that we right-wingers may be in for one super surprise coming up — and it may not be the surprise we had prayed for.

I think Mr. Bush would have served his Red States far more mightily if he had chosen a person who was really real. We needed a high-class judge with credentials shining up the night skies — who was a conservative for certain. For certain.

Sure it would have meant a fight to the close when the nominee came before the slicers and dicers on committee; but that’s going to happen regardless of who Mr. Bush put up there. So why not go for the top of the line with a conservative who has shown himself to be reliably a conservative over time.

This Roberts eventually could very well smile his cute face into one liberal slot for years and years and more years to come. So once again we conservative, morally based citizens of America would have to look back with angst at the summer of 2005.

Mr. Bush just could have done better. I think time and committee sessions haggling will prove that premise to be fact, sadly.