The Roberts bandwagon

BOTH USA Today and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today tell lawmakers to confirm John G. Roberts Jr. as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, joining a growing consensus among editorial pages, including this one.

Still, the editorials from the two papers have different reasons. For the Post-Gazette, it’s mostly politics: Its editorial reminds Senate Democrats that Roberts’ confirmation would fill conservative Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist’s spot, not the key swing-vote position occupied by retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. “Fighting a doomed battle over Judge Roberts ... would lessen the chances of winning the next battle if President Bush nominates a jurist who is clearly beyond the pale,” the editorial says.

USA Today, meanwhile, praises Roberts’ tact in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee (“Roberts came off as the best politician in the room”) while dismissing lingering concerns that he’s a Paleolithic conservative. While declaring that Roberts has displayed the “potential to be an outstanding chief justice,” USA Today still wishes that the confirmation process had been “more informative.”

Elsewhere, the Financial Times of London finds “a silver lining to the recurrent storm clouds over the Gulf of Mexico” -- perhaps higher oil prices, it says, will push gas-guzzling Americans to gas-frugal hybrids. Granted, motorists in Europe pay pump prices that would drive many Americans to invest in a good pair of sneakers. But editorializing from London must make it far easier to take some solace in yet another hurricane-induced gas-price jump in the States.

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Paul Thornton