Hard-Right Cast

An editorial in today's New York Times refers to the "decidedly hard-right cast of President Bush's judicial nominations." Here's what the Times's own editorial page said on May 11: "President's Bush's initial batch of nominations for the nation's Circuit Courts of Appeal has turned out to be more eclectic and conciliatory than most people expected. It contains fewer hard-right legal activists than expected and also includes a number of mainstream conservatives who will be acceptable to Senate Democrats." Two of Mr. Bush's initial judicial nominees were originally nominated by President Clinton. It's a sure sign of the illogic of the Times editorial positions that they are not even internally consistent. If there's some new information that has come out about the judicial nominees that makes it clear they have a "hard-right cast," the Times could share it with its readers and explain why it was wrong in its initial assessment of the nominees. Instead, the paper just contradicts itself. Maybe it thinks its own readers are too dumb or forgetful to notice.