Janice Rogers Brown

President Bush's nominee for the DC District Court of Appeals, Janice Rogers Brown, is a GOP wet dream: black, daughter of a sharecropper, as conservative as Clarence Thomas and the "right" kind of activist. I mean strict constructionist. Whatever. The important thing imagewise is that Bill Frist can stand on Capitol Hill with a large group of blacks behind him and claim Democrats are racist because they won't allow a vote on Judge Brown.

Her critics here, here, and here, depict a far-right, pro-corporation, anti-government activist.

Her supporters here, here, and surprisingly, here, depict a far different portait - that of a popular (over 70% of Californians who voted favored her return to the bench in her last election) judge who stands up to big government in areas of illegal searches and prosecutorial abuse of powers.

While you chew on that, here's a nice quote from Judge Brown taken out of context to support the Democrats' fight to keep the filibuster:

"Individual liberty cannot be preserved if the majority's will must always triumph."

But this is just a little skirmish compared to what will happen when Rehnquist, O'Connor and Stevens step down from the Supreme Court...