SAYUNCLE ON HELLER: “5-4 was bit too close for comfort in my opinion. I was figuring on 6-3 or 7-2, honestly. Sure, this quiz was pass/fail but we were only one heart attack away, my friends. I hate to say it but that one reason is why I’ll hold my nose, get good and hammered, and pull the lever for John McCain.”

And this will help how?

Do you think that President McCain is going to be able to get an Alito or a Roberts, let alone a Thomas or a Scalia, onto the Supreme Court? Conversely, do you think that President McCain would veto any SCOTUS nominee sent to the White House?

On the other hand, if the GOP perceives that nominating moderates, liberals, and lesser-of-two-evil candidates is the way to win elections, do you think that the nominee after President McCain might be indistinguishable from, say, Hillary Clinton?

I do.

The brutal truth is that the Second was saved today thanks to the actions of conservatives who rebelled against George Bush and forced him to put Roberts and Alito on the court. Had his preferred nominees, Alberto Gonzales and Harriet Miers, been nominated and ratified, the decision we would have seen today would have been 5-4 in the opposite direction, with Gonzales joining with the other four liberals to respect the Bush administration’s request that the DC law not be overturned.