Who's Earl Warren, 2010?

Caveat: different versions of this same rant can no doubt be found all over the internet for the past few weeks. I have not read them. This is just my obligatory rant on the Supreme Court.

I am sick of the White House and Senate Dems whining that they have to put up a "safe" choice that the Republicans will go for in order to get a confirmation on a Supreme Court Nominee because they "only" have 59 votes in the Senate. That is ludicrous. Democrats control the White House and they control the Senate. They can and should appoint and confirm someone to the highest court that reflects Democratic values, someone (as late liberal Senator Paul Wellstone used to say he was) from the "Democratic wing of the Democratic party."

When Republicans controlled the Senate and White House they used it to pack the court with young far right conservatives. You've all heard about the "balanced" supreme court? It has the right, the center and the far right. Well, it's time for some real balance on the court. It's time for the Democrats to put up some young pup that is a left-wing wacko that somehow passes muster.

The trouble is that none of the "fully vetted" people who are already on the federal bench are going to fit the bill by definition because if they were demonstrably far left they wouldn't have been appointed. Also the conventional wisdom is that we're never going to have any more surprise justices like Souter (appointed by Bush I and then moved from right to center) or Earl Warren (appointed by Eisenhower and then moved from center to left; pictured at right).

The Dems are terrified of nominating someone with a skeleton in their closet and then having it haunt them in the November elections. I, for one, would prefer that they'd be a little more scared of losing any semblance of civil liberties in this country and a little less scared about their own electoral hide.

For the love of God, President Obama: look under every rock, listen to your highest inner wisdom, cement your legacy, by finding and naming the next Earl Warren (preferably less white and less male).