Captain Ed links to an awesome speech by California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rice Brown, in which she speaks about Truth, Justice and the American Way, and how little these seem to matter in America today. It is ironic to the point of self-reference that this exceptional woman should be bedeviled by the anklebiters, lie-mongers and wardheeling crap artists that pose as statesmen in the US Senate is beyond belief. I'd say she's worth 20 of them, but twenty times zero doesn't add up. Maybe negative 20 of them....
Go read the speech -- and take your time -- and tell me this is someone we should keep off the bench without so much as the courtesy of a vote. Even if you disagree! If she's "out of the mainstream, as her detractors say, that doesn't speak well for the mainstream.
Compare her to, say, Justices Kennedy, Souter, Stevens, Rehnquist, O'Connor or Breyer. Or Thomas or Ginsberg for that matter. Maybe Scalia could keep up. The only problem I have with her nomination is that it's only for the DC Circuit, but give it time...
Also worth reading is her speech to the Federalist Society (pdf) I previously linked here. See also here, here, here, here and here.