(UPDATED)
Democratic Senate minority leader Harry Reid has gone on record with his first endorsement for a prospective Supreme Court nominee (Hat tip Hugh Hewitt):
Alberto Gonzales is qualified. ... But having said that he's qualified, I don't know if he'd have an easy way through.
I call this damning as all get-out for Gonzales. Gonzales has won this public endorsement of Supreme Court worthiness from Reid only because the Democrats have determined Gonzales to be the squishiest prospective nominee on President Bush's short list. Don’t think that the Dems haven’t done their research before sending Reid out to pronounce Gonzales “qualified.” Don’t think their paymasters—uber-left lobbyists such as those from People for the American Way—haven’t signed off on this beforehand.
The Democratic Party has veered so radically left, that an endorsement by a leader of the Democratic Senate should be—in any sane political environment—by all rights the kiss of death for any prospective nominee.
The only nominees in the best interest of America are those so viscerally and ideologically repellant to Democratic leaders as to cause men like Reid to spit blood.
UPDATE:
Don't miss Angry Clam's must-see post on just how awful of a prospective Supreme Court nominee Gonzales really is.