Others have explained that the watchword is "confirmable." If that was the president's motivation, then he failed to learn from his own success. Didn't the Roberts confirmation demonstrate that there are limits to liberal obstructionism? Roberts was so well-qualified, well-spoken and amiable that his nomination deflated the liberals without firing a shot. Far from launching a filibuster, a number of Democrats wound up voting for Roberts rather than look like extremist zealots.
The truth is that most Americans like conservative judges -- you don't have to sneak them in under the radar. The Bork debacle is ancient history. (And most Americans would have liked him if they hadn't been so misled by smears.) Conservatives had learned from that bitter experience and stood ready with advertising dollars to support any conservative nominee who would be savaged by the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. They were not going to be sandbagged again. Oh, and has anyone in the White House noticed that Republicans control the Senate these days?
Finally, as disgusted as we are with President Bush for this timid and tepid choice, we cannot forget that it is Democrats who have brought us to this pass. I heard an NPR host a couple of weeks ago describing the nomination process as "polarized." Some professor agreed that liberals vote only for liberals and conservatives only for conservatives. Nope. Conservative senators have, for the most part, voted to confirm liberal justices. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was confirmed by a vote of 96-3. Justice Stephen Breyer was approved by a vote of 87-9.
Of course, when conservative senators voted for Ginsburg and Breyer, they could tell themselves that, after all, you couldn't expect anything more acceptable out of Bill Clinton. What do they say to themselves now?