Sandra Day O'Connor's resignation is not effective until her successor has been named and approved by the Senate. There is no urgency to fill her seat on the most important court in the (previously) United States of America.
Now that the House majority speaker (GOP) has been indicted, while we wait for the SEC investigation of the Senate majority leader (GOP), as we wait for Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation of the treasonous outing of a CIA NOC by a GOP executive branch to wrap up, and as disapproval of the President himself (GOP) reaches into the 40% range (Rasmussen), it's time to call a halt to the packing of the courts with ultra-right wing conservative activists.
We should not allow the GOP to continue to abuse their remaining, slim hold on power by installing corrupt judges who will see to it that the poor, women, and minorities will be punished for the sin of voting for Democrats. The President's margin of victory was 117,000 votes in Ohio; votes that no one from either side can verify were counted fairly and correctly. This is not a mandate to overturn years of American tradition by turning our court system into an ideological machine.
The Democrats are often criticized for not taking a stand. Sometimes this accusation is just, and sometimes it isn't, but there is no greater commitment that could be made at this time in our nation's history than to take a stand against the self-serving GOP's giveaway of our nation's future to the freedom-hating "religious" ultra-right, the criminal corporations that move jobs and profits off-shore to avoid accountability, and the war-making machinery that steals from the middle class and gives to the few who profit from oil and death.
As the decay of our country continues the GOP places intolerant judges ever deeper into the core of the judiciary. Even lower court judges are ticking time bombs, waiting for the proper moment to unleash their deadly payloads of intolerance for the poor and underprivileged, obeisance to their corporate masters, and the defense of the new status quo of torture, pre-emptive war, and massive profits for the biggest supporters of the formerly reasonable Republican party.
Now is the time for the Democratic party to mobilize with ONE VOICE, the voice of their constituents, and ensure that this packing of the courts be suspended until the American people have again had a chance to speak.
No more judges (or controversial representatives) should be approved by the Senate until after the elections of 2006.
(Tip o' the hat to Atman, who prompted me to write this.)