Confirming Supremes

      The modern confirmation process for Supreme Court Justices ensures that every successful nominee will have two attributes: phenomenal bladder control and a truly outstanding ability to endure overbearing questioners.  This is probably not what the Framers were after with the "advise and consent" clause, but they're good skills for sitting on the highest court nevertheless.

      In the most recent set of hearings, even some of the Senators who were supporters of the proposed new member of the Court were over-the-top dramatic.  The entire spectacle of Senatorial posturing was embarrassing to witness.*

      It's useful to remember that nobody puts their name up for consideration for the job of Supreme Court Justice unless they're a Constitutional Law geek, and that no matter what you think of any of them or what you believe to be their judicial philosophy, they're just one voice among nine.  Once a Justice has been on the court a while and it fully sinks in that they cannot be fired, they tend to buckle down and do the hard work of figuring cases out rather than following the prevailing winds of partisan ideology.  That's no guarantee you will agree with their decision, but at least they're thinking things through.

      You'd be hard-pressed to find more than a corporal's guard of U. S. Senators of whom the same could be said; possibly not even enough for a round of euchre.
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* Which is why comments arguing "But the other party was super-mean to the previous Administration's nominees and it's so unfair," will not be published.  Yes.  Yes, they were (and I wrote unfavorably about it); and when the shoe was on the other foot before that, there was unfairness and discourtesy in the other direction.  You don't get to whine about the other side when your side plays the same game, no matter which side you're on.  As you go back in time, the rancor does get less; Supreme Court confirmation hearings used to involve a lot less "gotcha" questioning and playing to the cameras.  We used to wait until Justices were on the Court before loathing them, but that's not how it has worked for well over a decade.