A Missed Opportunity for the Dems

I can't be counted upon to quote Mark Shields very often, but on Friday night on the Jim Lehrer NewsHour, Shields came through with a gem on the Democrats' response to the nomination of John Roberts for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Forget that the nation and the party would both have been better served by the temperamentally suited and professionally qualified John Roberts' winning Senate confirmation with 90-plus votes. The nation would have been better served because such a margin would have represented an un-petty act in a city descended into hateful pettiness. And the Democrats, because by acknowledging Roberts' obvious assets -- intellectual firepower, genuine respect from, and friendship with, colleagues who are active Democrats, a reputation for open-mindedness and not being a captive of ideology -- they could have then believably used the "Roberts standard" to measure President Bush's future court nominees.

Shields expands on the riff here.