It's the resume, stupid

I'm not normally a George Will fan, but he makes some salient points about public office. The most important is that a nominee for Supreme Court, or any office of public import, should be first judged by qualifications, and second by political persuasion.

The main public arguments about whether she will vote this way or that way on a particular issue are frivolous compared to whether or not she has the background, intellect and skills to handle her job responsibly. She will be hearing literally hundreds of cases in her career that will span at least a decade, maybe two. The cases will affect everything from the right to protect our homes from government donation to developer to whether we can be arrested for private, consensual sex between adults.

As we have seen, partisan politics should not be allowed to trump basic competence for any job, public or private. After all, once she is confirmed, she will be rewriting US Constitutional law until the day she dies or voluntarily steps down, no matter what anyone else thinks of her in the future.

This is the last chance we have to hold her to any accountability before elevating her from private lawyer to becoming the key vote on the most powerful court in the country.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/04/AR2005100400954.html