During the roundtable discussion portion of Friday's "Special Report with Brit Hume," The Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes said that if Clarence Thomas were appointed to the Supreme Court today, the Democrats in the Senate would filibuster him as an "out of the mainstream extremist."

National Public Radio's Juan Williams said: "I don't think they'd filibuster him."

Williams is far too intelligent to have believed those words coming out of his own mouth.

When the next Supreme Court opening comes up -- probably later this summer -- Democrats will filibuster President Bush's nominee (if the nuclear option has not already been implemented). It won't matter if they unanimously (or nearly unanimously) confirmed the same individual to a lower court or that the nominee has a brilliant legal mind and impeccable credentials or that the individual is rated "well-qualified" by the American Bar Association. All that will matter is that he or she is a conservative.