From The Huffington Post:
A close look at John McCain’s Senate voting record on judicial confirmations makes it painfully clear that progressives need to ignore the rantings of the Ann Coulter crowd and believe John McCain when he says he will listen to Sam Brownback and appoint judges like Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia. On judges, McCain’s no moderate: if given the chance, he will appoint justices that move an already conservative Supreme Court sharply to the right.
Indeed, one looks in vain for a judge who is too ideologically conservative for McCain: he voted to confirm Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas and, unless I’ve missed something, every other Republican judicial nominee voted on in his 22 years in the Senate.
Even more tellingly, as part of his negotiation in 2005 of what has been dubbed the “Gang of 14 Deal” (more on this later), McCain pushed, hard, for the confirmation of both William Pryor and Janice Rogers Brown, the two hardest-edged conservatives appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush.
For background, there are nine people on the Supreme Court. Currently, five of them support Roe vs. Wade, while four do not. In all likelihood, the next President will get to appoint at least one Supreme Court Justice.
Oh, and the Supreme Court doesn’t just make decisions about abortion. They do everything from choosing a President (wasn’t 2000 fun?) to making decisions about global warming and disability rights. You name an issue you care about—the Supreme Court has an impact on it. Any time there’s a 5-4 decision that narrowly averts disaster of one kind or another, we should think about what a complete and utter mess we would have on our hands if McCain were President.
Just sayin’.