"Stare Decisis"

Well, those two words (along with "precedent" and "passive") got John G. Roberts to the Senate floor WITH recommendations, which is more than anybody can say for John F-U Bolton.

All the 10 Republicans and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) , Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) voted in favor of confirmation. The rest, Joseph Biden (D-DE), Dick Durbin (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), and Charles Schumer (D-NY) voted in against John Roberts.

Following the rest of the WaPost article... I know that Roberts did not have to answer specific issue-oriented questions that may spark irrelevant debate on his personal stance on hot topics like abortion. However, I can understand where the Democratic Senators might have been frustrated. From the Washington Post:

All the "no" voters, and some of the Democrats who voted affirmatively, complained about what they considered Roberts' unwillingness during hearings last week to answer questions forthrightly about where he stood on major legal issues now and where he stood in the 1980s and 1990s, when he wrote numerous memos as a lawyer in the Reagan and a Bush administrations in support of conservative views.

"My voting in favor of Judge Roberts does not endorse his refusal to answer reasonable questions," said Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), whose vote was uncertain until he announced it.

I'm not sure I agreed entirely on his belief in a passive court. Maybe I am simply misinterpreting his answer, but it seemed to be that the role of the court, in his view, was that it should only focus on the cases brought to them. I'm not so sure about that. Would that mean that anybody can be breaking the law, or worse, the Constitution, but not get caught because the case has not been brought up to the Court? I don't know. I'm feeling ambivalent. Hopefully, the Democrats can accept the fact that this moderate guy is going to pass as the Chief Justice. He'll be taking Rehnquist's spot, which would mean an equally if not less conservative court... until Dubya fills Sandra's spot. I'm sincerely worried. I mean, one decent choice must have been a mistake. I bet people at the White House are slapping themselves for picking a nominee who was actually appropriate (for the most part) for the position.