Lessons from tonight

As ABC and other reputable sources first broke the news that Judge Clement would not be the President's choice, I was absolutely dumbfounded. I spent a good hour reading everything I could to see a hint. (I found a few things, for example the President refered to the nominee as "he" in the morning presser and Judge Jones was in Huston.) But nowhere did I found any hint of a leak.

1. This is a leakproof whitehouse. I commented to a friend that if this was the Stockwell Day white house, there would be a 1000 leaks about the decision before even Stockwell Day knew it had been made.

2. This is a brilliant white house. It let the press think that the President was about to nomiante Clement. Then the press went to the Dems with that story. The Dems were naturally happy thinking that they've won the fight and gotten the President to appoint another O'Connor. So the Dems came out and talked, in front of the cameras, about how well the consultation process had worked and how they were happy. Then, as soon as the whitehouse had a few Dems on tape and on the record saying the consultations were good, they told ABC that it would not be Clement. This sent the Dems in a tailspin. They looked stupid.

3. This is a conservative white house dedicated to promoting smart people. Everything I've read about Roberts makes me think he will be as good as his mentor, the current Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.