The Senate today confirmed John Roberts to be chief justice of the Supreme Court by a vote of 78-22. I must confess that he got more Democrat support than I predicted. I suspect this is because Roberts ended up replacing the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, and not the retiring Sandra Day O'Connor.

The talk is that President Bush will announce O'Connor's replacement early next week -- and I believe it will go much worse for that nominee, whoever he or she may be. If 22 Democrats won't vote for Roberts, they won't vote for anyone Bush nominates. And I suspect that a good number of the Democrats who voted for Roberts did so simply so that their opposition to the next nominee will appear to be principled.