Fair Play

Kenn at Cogicophony sums up my feelings on the judicial nominations process:

[I]f the President makes his choices on ideological grounds, why shouldn't the Senate examine that ideology? It seems to me that both parts of a judge's credentials are examinable. Why does the Senate have to be ensconsed in an Ivory Tower while the President gets to pick the judge most likely to fit his political views?

The level of disingenuity on both sides of the process was galling to me, but none moreso than the claim that the Senate cannot take a judicial nominee's political views into account when advising and consenting.