Supreme Court Armegeddon

This is so sad:

By most accounts, it [a Supreme Court nomination battle] would rival a presidential campaign, complete with extensive television advertising, mass e-mails, special Internet sites, opposition research, public rallies and news conferences. Both Democrats and Republicans have been raising money for this moment for years. The president's allies have promised to bankroll an $18 million public relations blitz, and administration opponents have set up a war room and enlisted veterans of the campaigns of Bill Clinton and Al Gore to devise strategy.

We don't even know if Rehnquist will resign. Nor do we know whom Bush will nominate if he does. Yet, we are gearing up for total war nonetheless.

One of the lessons of World War I was that mass mobilizations tend to make war inevitable even if there is nothing worth fighting for. You can't take the tropps, whip them up to a fever pitch and then say "Oh, never mind." You end up inventing a reason to fight just becuase you are prepared to do so.

Can't Bush find a jurist that 5 Democrats will support?

Can't the Left at least wait to see who will be nominated before declaring war?

And, can't BOTH sides recognize that the fate of the Republic depends much more on civility in the political processes than it does on the politics of the person appointed to the Supreme Court?

Sigh.