Bush NEEDS a fight right now. The reason his poll ratings are down is because conservatives are disenchanted with his spending, his failure to control the borders, and his pandering to the race hustlers after Katrina. Bush needs a clear right vs. left fight...a vicious, bloody fight....to rally the base for 2006.
Some people just don't get it. It's the Democrats who are desperate to avoid a Supreme Court fight. The reason they threatened Bush so much on this issue was to intimidate him into not sending up a nominee who would trigger a fight. The 'Rats knew that a fight would result in the public rallying around the nominee, who would then be confirmed, with Bush's ratings going up and the GOP base rallied for 2006. The last thing the 'Rats wanted was a situation where Ralph Neas & NARAL & Co. were demanding that they filibuster while phone calls & e-mails from back home were running four-to-one in favor of the nominee. Imagine Mary Landrieu or Max Baucus or Bill Nelson caught in that trap.
Bush avoided a fight and gave us a stealth nominee who is a decade too old, thus providing the Democrats with political cover.
Amen to that. Not that poll numbers are the be-all and end-all, but recall that Clinton's poll numbers jumped when he was fighting the "Right Wing Conspiracy" and impeachment.
I agree the base wants a fight, just as the left base wants a fight. Bush wants a damn SUPREME COURT THAT IS ORIGINALIST. Read the journals of G. Washington during the Revolution---how all his "base" (his loyal generals) wanted him to fight with congress over sending him loser generals like Gates and Lee, and how he stauchly kept focused on the prize. His goal was not to pick a fight, it was to win THE fight.