Why George Bush Is Smiling About John G. Roberts

President George W. Bush must be slapping his thigh and laughing out loud as he watches Senate Democrats sputter over his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In John G. Roberts Jr., he has a candidate who looks a lot like someone who would move the court rightward on a host of issues, and there's not a darn thing Democrats can do about it.

Conservative as he is, Roberts is so smart, so not-a-nut and so downright likeable by all accounts that it's hard to put up much of a fight without looking like a party pooper.

"Strategically, a brilliant nomination,'' says Lee Epstein, a political science professor at Washington University in St. Louis and co-author of the book "Advice and Consent: The Politics of Appointing Federal Judges,'' to be published in September.

So when Senate Democrats complained this week that the White House had already declared off-limits certain records they might want, the senators come off as ornery.

The Bush administration is handing the Senate Judiciary Committee material ``that goes above and beyond what any reasonable person would expect,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters this week. ``It's more than what they need.''

Now the president is telling senators what they do and don't need to do their job.

•	Why George Bush Is Smiling About John G. Roberts Bloomberg.com, Friday, July 29, 2005 Byline: Ann Woolner