I think one difference here is that while most Americans don't give to flips if the democrats fillibuster a circuit court appointment forever, they notice the SCOTUS ones. They woud only have so long to fillibuster before somebody catches the blame. While the democrats can fillibuster I think they woud have a hard time turning justice appointments like Roberts and Alito into Borks. The congress would catch the blame on that one.

I do think you are right that if McCain does somehow win we will more likely see some type of negotiation and end up with more Kennedy types. I hope not. This is one area where the president should look for the Roberts and Alito types, nominate them and let the chips fall if the congress turns them into the next Bork. The only problem is whether or not the appointees are willing to let the chips fall.

But there are a lot more cases out there dear to the conservatives. The Kelo decision being one of them.

Tlaloc, that you can say that means you're clueless about Boumediene.

Well let's do a quick test, eh?

Over the last week google finds a grand total of 7,470 hits for "Boumediene."

Same time period search for "roe v wade"? 107,000 hits.

Now notice first of all that the first search is looking for a single name where as the second is looking for a phrase. How many sites just left it at Roe rather than spell out the whole case name? Notice further that the Boumediene happened just a few weeks ago (mid july) whereas Roe occurred 35 years ago.

And yet Roe shows up 15x more often.

Oh yeah...Boumediene is huge.

On the other hand, if a terrorist is released due to the decision and subsequently blows up a daycare center, that would fuel the rights dislike for the court for decades.

Except for the McCain campaign, of course...

Roe is far, far from the only — or even the most important — Supreme Court decision that distresses movement conservatives. This term's Boumediene decision is equally outrageous and potentially more consequential in the big picture.

Yeah, right. You know how many times a *day* Roe get's attacked as the very personification of evil on the right? I doubt five years from now anyone will know what Boumediene is, but Roe will still be the Right's Pinata.

If Roe v Wade was overturned tomorrow, how many states would actually outlaw abortion (e.g. the state referendum in South Dakota). If the 5-4 decision on Habeas Corpus for terrorists had gone the other way, the left would have steamed, but not done anything about it. On the other hand, if a terrorist is released due to the decision and subsequently blows up a daycare center, that would fuel the rights dislike for the court for decades.

Finally, for this election cycle the reality is that even with the best election year the republicans could imagine, there will be enough democratic votes in the senate to filibuster any supreme court justice nomination. Most likely the democrats will be in a majority and thus force a compromise (or have the White House and really get the upper hand). So the urgency is low for the left at this time.

All in all, I agree that the make up of the court is much less powerful for the left than the right. Arguably, the court is make up is one of the strongest issues for shoring up McCain support on his base. So what else is new?