New York Daily News columnist <A

HREF=”http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/ershipp/”>E.R. Shipp on Arlen

Specter, prospective chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee:

I am part of the America that did not give President Bush a mandate to do
anything, let alone push through a conservative agenda that feeds on fear
and a go-it-alone notion that if the U.S. ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. …
So what do those of us who opposed the President do now? Even though he ran on a platform of fear, we must not be afraid. We must resist the Bushies’ Christian jihad that could lead to an America that not just our European friends, but we ourselves no longer recognize. Arlen Specter makes me optimistic. A Republican who is set to take over the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he’s telling the Bushies that he does not want to see judicial nominees who are extremists from the right.

Because liberals depend upon the government, their instincts are frankly

better than are conservatives on personnel. If Shipp is optimistic about

Arlen, conservatives have no reason to be.