My sympathies are with Madman in the Marketplace. Like several others who commented on his diary, my heart agrees that it’s high time for the Democrats in Congress to stand up for us. And yet my head says this nomination is not an issue that will win us any points politically. And maybe just maybe Roberts is not the troglodyte we think he is. At least one apparently smart and liberal lawyer who knows him says Roberts could well surprise us.
Roberts’ law school roommate says we shouldn’t be too quick to pigeonhole him:

Despite his conservative views and record as a Reagan administration lawyer, Roberts chose a bipartisan Washington law firm and a liberal mentor when he entered private practice in 1986, said Richard Lazarus, a law professor and head of the Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown University, and a former roommate of Roberts at Harvard Law School.

“He could have gone anywhere,” Lazarus said. “It’s remarkable how little (a role) politics has played in his life. … He has friends of all political and ideological stripes. I think that counts for something.”

Liberal groups that were quick to label Roberts as the soul mate of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia after President Bush nominated him Tuesday may be pleasantly surprised when they look back on his work five to 10 years from now, Lazarus said.

I didn’t know anything about Lazarus so I looked him up and he seems to have good pro-environment and pro-worker credentials as an advocate before the Supreme Court himself.

Be that as it may, a fellow who interned at Roberts’ firm twelve years ago thinks Roberts has the potential to be a powerful leader for conservatives on the Supreme Court. From the same article:

As a second-year law student, 12 years ago, Joondeph spent a summer at Hogan & Hartson with Roberts, the firm’s appellate chief, as his mentor. Joondeph said he both admired Roberts and feared his potential influence on the Supreme Court.

“He’s open-minded, he’s thoughtful, and he’s reasonable,” Joondeph said. As a consequence, he said, it’s conceivable that, a few years from now, “Roberts can become, through his geniality and sheer intellectual force, the leader of the conservative view (on the court) in a way that Scalia and Thomas have never been able to do.”

How do we want our conservatives served up? I’m not quite ready to jump on the anti-Roberts bandwagon yet. Maybe we could do a hell of a lot worse than John Roberts. I’m very interested in what the confirmation hearings bring to light.