Ideology vs. competency

Sen. Bob Bennett, RINO-Utah (I kid! I kid!), came by for a visit to the Herald's editorial board on Monday.

While he focused mostly on his doomed alternative health care reform bill, he did answer a question about why he voted against now-Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor.

Bennett said that in the good ol' days (my words) he would have voted for Sotomayor. Nearly two decades ago he said that senators voted on competency, not ideology, and let the dice fall where they may. (Clarence Thomas would have a thing or two to say about that.)

Now, Bennett says, you vote on ideology because if you don't then the other side's people get on the bench and yours don't. He (and several other senators) laid their decisions at the feet of President Obama, who said as a senator during the Roberts and Alito hearings that he was voting on ideological grounds rather than based on competency.

I asked if that just turns into a race to the bottom in a system that has historically required compromise, leverage and good will. "You run that risk," Bennett nodded.

What's perhaps most interesting about Sotomayor is that the No. 1 issue with the Republican constituency is where a nominee stands on abortion. Sotomayor ably and predictably dodged the question during hearings, but the New York Times points out that she's never really been tested on the issue.

And the kicker: her decisions on peripheral cases show that she's sided, at least to some degree, with the anti-abortion side.

In a time when the GOP is in the wilderness, it seems they not only missed a chance to gain some leverage, but they pissed off a president with a huge majority in Congress by taking the ideological road and blaming it on him.

Of course, I'm sure Bennett's decision had nothing to do with his re-election campaign this year that is facing spirited opposition from multiple candidates from within his own party — because he's not ideological enough.