On Religious McCarthyism

Faithful Progressive has an outstanding blog about Religious McCarthyism on the Community Forum at the Christian Alliance for Progress website. Here's some of the best analysis I've seen regarding judges being brought for confirmation:

Next May, Old Faithful Progressive will celebrate twenty years of practicing law. In that time, I've appeared before and personally known literally hundreds of judges. In my experience, it makes little difference if a good judge is politically liberal or conservative. Frankly, most judges see enough of life and of human weakness at close range that it tempers any kind of political stridency. Eventually they come to see that their own personal views must give way to become a true servant of the law and of the people. But, then again, some judges never get this: there are always those few who see everything through the lens of their own pre-existing agenda. These are the trial judges that always lead the substitution numbers: people know that the facts of their case will be contorted to suit the personal agenda of the judge. The same tendencies exist with appellate courts, and in roughly the same numbers. So far, the approval of Bush judicial nominees also roughly reflects these facts: those with an identifiable agenda have been rejected, most have been approved.