OK, Mr. or Ms. Editor, let’s be honest.

You are not upset that President Bush picked a white male to fill the empty spot in the Supreme Court. You are disappointed that he picked a conservative.

Well, surprise, surprise, a conservative is president. When Bill Clinton chose ultra-liberal candidates during his term, they were treated with respect by GOP senators.

In fact, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer were confirmed 97-3 and 87-9, respectively.

I was young, but I still remember the Clarence Thomas hearings and his majesty Jesse Jackson telling us all that Clarence Thomas was not really black because he was against abortion and affirmative action.

Would you still be writing this article if Bush had chosen an African-American, Hispanic or female who was against those two causes?

I feel there is a huge double standard that liberals continually expose. Someone is not a women or minority unless they believe what the far left does. It disgusts me.

How dare you accuse the president of betraying democracy because his candidate does not fit some minority/gender mold.

A minority or woman would not have guaranteed a scrutiny-free hearing because not only do they have to be of a certain sex/creed, but also believe what you want them to.

I don’t hear special interest groups crying, “He is a white man, he is a white man, my god, George Bush picked a white man!”

No, they are focusing on what they perceive to be his views. There is a clear difference in a nominee’s personal ideology and how he would judge the law. Some say John Roberts is inconsistent on his views of Roe v. Wade.

How you act as a lawyer for a client and when you are on an appellate court as a judge are completely different.

Roberts has made it clear that he will take each case on its own merit and evaluate the case in strict accordance to the Constitution.

In the end, special interest groups to the left of center would not give a darn if the nominee was a white man as long as he was for what they believed.

In this country, as I see it, one is not truly of their color or gender if they betray the “typical” stereotype, as we all saw with Thomas. I feel that is truly sad.

I hope when you refer to the improper activities of the Senate you focus your attention on the left side of the aisle, as the Democrats are the ones trying to disgrace all of the president’s nominations, many of which have never even been allowed to get an up or down vote!

You talk about the people not getting represented … the U.S. Senate cannot even vote on a nomination because the Democrats filibuster any proposed vote. That is what I call snubbing democracy.

Some of those nominees were actually women and minorities (California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown and Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla R. Owen).

This supports my accusation that it is not sex and minority status that is important, but ideology.

The people of this country have a body of government elected to make votes and the Democrats find it proper to stop any such votes.

I am sorry we don’t have a Democratic Senate and president so you can get your “colorful” and “sexually equal” Supreme Court. The president chose what he thought to be the most qualified, charismatic and distinguished candidate.

I truly want all such positions to be filled in such a fashion. This is not the time to pick a nominee based only on appeasing every slice of the American population. That is not to say that there are no female or minority qualified candidates, but the president is the one elected by the people and he took this decision very seriously.

He consulted with almost all of the senators and in the end chose a wonderful candidate who will not be an activist intent on eroding American society.

Of course there were minorities and women on Bush’s candidate list. In the end, he chose who he thought to be the best.

Bottom line … you will not be happy until President Bush is out of office. That is your real pain.

By the way, does the 13 percent of the population being Latino include all the illegal aliens?

Just curious. You may need to up your ideal number of Latino judges on the Supreme Court.

Chuck Leseberg

Ph.D. Graduate Student