Do you remember what you were doing on July 1, 1987? That was the day that Ronald Reagan nominated Robert Bork to the United States Supreme Court. Reagan knew that he was asking for a fight and he got it. Democrats managed to recognize the very real threat that Bork represented, and almost four months later, Reagan and Bork were handed a humiliating defeat. Looking back, you kind of have to wonder if Reagan really cared.
Bork did, though, as did all of those nascent Tea Party types. Twenty-five years later, it's fair to ask if Bork is going to get the last laugh.
When I was young, some Republicans were evil - Nixon - but on the whole, Republicans were cognizant of public opinion and were willing to go along with it, albeit in their own way. Nixon opened the door to the idea of screwing over just about everyone in order to help the "white, God-fearing residents of Rock Ridge" (ok, the country club). Reagan moved it along, but it's really in the past 15 years that the mask really came off.
Democrats seemingly believed that, having slayed Bork, they secured a future of moderate Supreme Court nominees. And, they got it in Kennedy. But, when Clarence Thomas came along, Democrats either failied to recognize the revived Bork-like threat, or they were simply too timid to mount another Bork-like defense, Joe Biden's pretend theatrics notwithstanding.
Republicans, for their part, figured out that they simply needed to nominate people a little less outspoken. And, they quickly discovered that it was a winning strategy with Thomas. In fact, Thomas probably spoke many times more in his hearing than all of his years on the Supreme Court bench.
With the "election" of GWB in 2000, Republicans saw their chance and they took it for all that it was worth with Roberts and Alioto. Democrats had the wool pulled over their eyes - again - and seemed content that Roberts, for example, would stick by his promise to be an impartial umpire. And yet, here we are, apparently on the brink of having the Commerce Clause taken back to the early 20th Century - or earlier.* It's exactly what Bork preached, so you can only imagine that he's feeling pretty well vindicated. Or, if Roberts decides that he's not quite ready to take that step, he knows that it's just a matter of getting Romney in the White House and/or getting GOP control of the Senate. And then it's almost 100 years of progressive legislation that could be on the chopping block. Bork triumphant? It could depend on this year's election.
*I'll admit that I'm no constitutional scholar. I had the privilege of being taught constitutional law by a bona fide constitutional genius, but I'll admit that most of it went over my head. When I look at Commerce Clause cases, what I see roughly translates to "there be dragons."