With three years left in his term and no clear successor among the Republicans except for liberal Rudy Giuliani, conservatives that have rallied behind Bush’s base are beginning to see the walls close in around them and are starting to ask the president to behave, for once, like a Republican and not a political power-broker.

Not going to happen.

We all know that Bush’s skill is in the political rope-a-dope, in playing politics the way he played poker (for which he has gained repute in his collegiate years), and in turning not just his enemies but even his supporters on their heads.

We’ve seen him pay lip service to the religious authoritarians and not follow through. We’ve seen him “capitulate” to Democrats and yet never really go to the extremes they demand of him. I just hope that by keeping everyone on their toes he still has some sort of base with which to execute his desires.

I think that today, the hysterics of the right have shown that they can be true mirror images of the hysterical left as well. I think that there is that fear that this is the last chance for the Right to make an impression in American politics, which is a symptom of self-fulfilling prophetic defeat. News flash to all right wingers: we’re not losing, so please stop acting like it!

I have been told by ETR that senators on the left would never really be satisfied unless the SCOTUS nominee before them performed an abortion on their own daughters in front of the panel. I think that senators on the right would never really be satisfied unless we had a nominee who brandished a .357 in one hand, a Holy Bible in another, and declared unequivocally that he will overturn Roe v. Wade. People doing the screening process are demanding that this SCOTUS nominee walk to the table with her cards wide open. Isn’t that folks on the left wanted Roberts to do? Didn’t a lot of you ask them to cool down and ask questions that won’t telegraph his possible decisions on cases that may come before him?

There are so few calls of temperance today among the right that I’m tempted to call y’all a bunch of hypotwits.

We’re forced into a situation where we have to await with bated breath for what will come. Will Bush’s greatest legacy be political stalemates through uncertainty? We really won’t find out for sure until a lot of time has passed, won’t we?

I will say this with certainty though: Bush’s choice has clearly exposed the agenda-pushing of both sides, as clear as it could be under the midday sun.