I just wanted to highlight this letter in Wednesday's New York Times:

To the Editor:

I don't get it. According to his Princeton classmate Andrew P. Napolitano ("From Alito's Past, a Window on Conservatives at Princeton," front page, Nov. 27), Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. "is so intellectually honest that he labored mightily to keep those" socially conservative "inclinations from influencing his decisions on the bench."

Admittedly, Mr. Napolitano is no spokesman for the Bush administration. But if the administration, in promoting Judge Alito's nomination, agrees that the best judges are those who scrupulously keep their ideological views out of their judicial decisions, why doesn't it nominate liberals who would adhere to that principle?

Donald M. Solomon
Boston, Nov. 28, 2005

Well, if we're ever able to identify a liberal who could bring him/herself to adhere to that principle, I suppose there'd be no harm. However, a thorough search of the American population has yet to find such a creature.