The Nelson Report is one of those pricey beltway-insider tipsheets for corporate and government subscribers. So it is strange to read this level of rhetoric in explaining that the confirmation of Bolton – who would surely be rejected on the merits – is pure power politics, in particular a “total war” to preserve a united White House front. Indeed, frustrated Republican committeemen like Lincoln Chafee speak of a general “deference” to the president’s choice. And this is the same “deference” that certain senators wish to give the president when it comes to judges. Via Steve Clemons:

What we are seeing is a fight for the political soul of the nation. We’ve had these before, in the existential sense. . .in my political lifetime, the civil rights movement, the anti-Vietnam war movement, the women’s rights versus, to a certain extent, the right to life movement. But this time it’s totally and completely a fight about God. . .specifically, whether God is going to rule in the United States.

… Tom Delay manifestly believes this, and it sounds like any number of Senate Republicans either agree, or lack the imagination or moral courage to disagree. . .why else would some endorse threats against Republican-appointed judges who dare to interpret the law in secular terms? This is what the Bolton fight is really about: you can’t dump him, because that lets the Democrats win on both the facts and principle. . .fatal notions to a desire to pack the courts with religious and secular policy extremists.