By all means, let's not buck any trends here. So what if it only happened three times? Who cares? What does that have to do with steering a runaway court back on track, or risking it all on an unknown entity?
Scalia was passed over in the sense that most believed Bush would tap Scalia for the CJ position. Hint: Conservatives had no complaints about a Scalia or a Thomas court, but suspected it would be Scalia in the end.
Let me ask you this, how many times has a virtual unknown been nominated as for an AJ position only to have the nomination changed to a CJ nomination midway through the confirmation process? Could it be less than three times? Hmmmm? Heck, how many times has a president nominated a virtual unknown to the CJ position?
I freely admit that I am very critical of Bush for conservative reasons. What rationale do you use to justify your enthusiastic cheer leading for President Bush?
"most believed Bush would tap Scalia for the CJ position" -- What evidence do you have for this assertion?