Then, the media began asking which nominee would succumb to a well-organizedassault from the opposition. One has already fallen. They are less clear as to whether they consider that mistake to be giving shelter to an illegal alien or failing to divulge that humanitarian gesture to the Bush team. They argue that what they most wanted to see was a philosophical discussion of the kind the Senate held before it rejected Robert Bork for a seat on the Supreme Court in 1987. Judge Bork, though, was in contention for a life appointment.
Cabinet members stay in their jobs for much shorter periods.
Not that such distinctions matter to ideologues. In the case of John Ashcroft, Bush's designee for attorney general, and Gale Norton, his pick for Interior secretary, Bush's critics on the left will get the fight they claim to prefer. Alexander Hamilton understood all that. It is also not very probable that his nomination would often be overruled. In a most ironic twist, they challenge Ashcroft's fitness on the grounds that he is a man of deeply held religious convictions.