But, seriously...

John Roberts remains a bit of a mystery, not only to his opponents, but to the majority of his supporters as well. We do know that he's Conservative, arguably with a capital "C". We do know that King George likes him, as do the Congressional Republicans (who once again voted like the Borg Collective they've truly become) - and those are not necessarily good things.

We also know that in his brief career, Mr. Roberts seems to have been able to focus on the law itself with sufficient single-mindedness to be a part of some decidedly un-Conservative arguments. He seems to have had the capacity to put aside his personal politics in deference to the merits of a given case - in certain given cases - and that may turn out to be a surprisingly good thing.

So (pardon the pun), the jury's still out to a large extent on our new Chief Justice, and it may be too early to sound the death knell of civilization as we know it. It's one thing to aggressively criticize mistakes and abuses of power that have already occurred; it looks increasingly shrill to attack decisions Roberts might make some time in the future, as many of his opponents continue to do.

Besides, the remaining Supreme Court vacancy is really the one with frightening implications, and it would be wise to save some of our "political capital" for that round. There's a definite possibility that Mr. Roberts will prove to be as much of a disappointment to the Far Right as was Ms. O'Connor - and at this point, we have little realistic choice but to keep the faith.

Of course, I have always been an optimist.