That’s why the Democrats need to organize a solid and coherent bloc demanding reasonable jurists with a commitment to civil rights. If his winger lunacy wasn’t evidence enough, the simple fact that everything he does is a miserable failure, and his appointments are incompetent hacks and toadies, should invalidate any presumption in favor of this President’s choices for high office.

This is simply too important to grant any deference to the choices of someone whose judgment, on policy and appointments, is so demonstrably flawed. The Democrats should simply state that - on the basis of the evidence from Iraq, Plamegate, the self-humiliations of Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, the idiocy of John Bolton, and of course the disaster at FEMA - Bush’s appointments are presumptively incompetent and the burden is on him to prove that his nominees meet their standards of ability and judgment, and not the other way around. Then stick to their guns and work as a team for once.