Well, Duh!

An article in today's Los Angeles Times contained absolutely no surprises, but it did provide some interesting, if depressing, statistics. Because of President Bush's success in getting his nominees to the federal bench confirmed, the federal courts have now tilted decidedly to the right.

After nearly seven years in the White House, President Bush has named 294 judges to the federal courts, giving Republican appointees a solid majority of the seats, including a 60%-to-40% edge over Democrats on the influential U.S. appeals courts.

The rightward shift on the federal bench is likely to prove a lasting legacy of the Bush presidency, since many of these judges -- including his two Supreme Court appointees -- may serve for two more decades.

And despite the Republicans' loss of control of the Senate, 40 of Bush's judges won confirmation this year, more than in the previous three years when Republicans held the majority. [Emphasis added]

While a judge is not supposed to be seen as either Republican or Democrat, it's a pretty safe bet that those appointed by a conservative will hold the same or similar views. That certainly held true when the US Supreme Court upheld the Partial Birth Abortion law this past term on a 5-4 basis, with Justice Alito holding the deciding vote.

What is so stunning about the conservative shift is that Democrats, still hoarding their dry powder, are proud of their accomplishments:

"The progress we have made this year . . . is sometimes lost amid the partisan sniping over a handful of controversial nominations," said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, in a year-end statement.

Oh, that's going to make the base of your party happy, Senator. Especially now that the anti-abortionists have gotten their sizeable foot in the door.

The far right is gloating, as well they might.

"This issue unites the base," said Curt Levey, executive director of the Committee for Justice, a group that lobbies for Bush's judicial nominees. "It serves as a stand-in for the culture wars: religion, abortion, gay marriage and the coddling of criminals."

Nothing irritates conservatives more, he said, than having unelected judges decide politically charged issues that some believe should be left to voters and legislators. "Conservatives tend to blame judges for the left's success in the culture war," Levey said.

There you have it in a nutshell.

Right now, about all we can do is hope that both Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Justice John Paul Stevens live long and prosper.