Mercy! What a 48 hours or so to disappear into the zoo of I-95 while listening to the latest Harry Potter novel. It seems that I have missed a minor development up here in the greater Washington area. My work on the blog will be spotty in the days ahead. Verizon will not have the just-moved Mattingly family's DSL up and running for a week or so. At least that is what the computerized Ms. Darth Vader said in the company's hellish automated service system. My fair wife was switched around and cut off three times. Also, I don't start work on the Hill at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities until August 1. My Scripps Howard News Service column this a.m. -- the second of two columns (here's the first) on the mini-media storm involving The New York Times, the popes and evolution -- should have opened with this credit line: "Today's column is brought to you with the assistance of Panera Bread." Try the Cobblestone.
Anyway, it seems that Newsweek may have nailed the heart of the Supreme Court story this past week. Check here for a refresher. The big idea was that the country-club side of the GOP was worried that "an obsessive focus on abortion and gay marriage will jeopardize what they regard as a once-in-a-generation chance to unshackle commerce from the grip of federal regulators."
So, crucial to the success of the John Roberts nomination is the media spin that the libertarian side of the yin-yang GOP is happy and that the Religious Right is not too happy. But who is actually happy? How would we know? Who will find out if this guy ever sits in a pew?
Of course, in the age of the blogosphere, the quickest way to catch up on this drama within the drama is to turn to media-hot blogs on both sides. For starters, you turn -- naturally -- to Andrew Sullivan. Here is a link near the start of his blitz into fretting and praise, as he relaxes for a few months and then rides more tense emails and then repeats the cycle. The bottom line is that if Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard and other cultural conservatives believe they have reason to worry, then there is reason for the Lifestyle Left to hope. More than ever, Sullivan is a must read for the next few weeks (and you know the elite reporters are reading him).
Meanwhile, the blog crew at Christianity Today already has a link-happy report online about religion-turf reactions. Enquiring minds want to know, of course, what the human warning siren on the Religious Right thought of the nomination. Here is a piece of Collin Hansen's report:
The question of judicial philosophy is central because Roberts did not deliver an opinion on the D.C. court about abortion, religious symbolism, gay rights, or many other contentious social issues. For these reasons, Roberts may avoid the combative confirmation process that so many groups have been predicting and promising since Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement July 1. However, this same fact renders him somewhat mysterious, even for supporters.
"To my knowledge Judge Roberts has never talked about abortion and he certainly has no rulings about it, so we don't know what his private views are," said James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family. "But we do know that he is what Justice Scalia called an 'originalist,' who will interpret the Constitution as written, not dream up his decisions based on some preconceived ideology."
Ah! But is the good doctor bluffing? Who consulted who? Who winked and who nodded?
I hope the good people here at Panera Bread in Glen Burnie will let me come back in the days ahead and find out.
P.S. Can you believe The New York Times didn't use "beam me up" in this obituary headline? Others could not resist. Ah, that British culture.