Hugh Hewitt worked with him in the WH for two years and is over the moon for him. That means a lot to me.
THE POWER OF NETWORKING [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Many people have commented on the Roberts nomination as the continuation of the Republicans' post-Bork "stealth strategy"--and also on the failure of that strategy in the case of David Souter. Conservatives suspicious of Roberts note that many conservatives vouched for Souter in 1990, too.
But I don't think it's true that as many conservatives with firsthand knowledge of Souter spoke as highly of him as are now speaking highly of Roberts. If I recall correctly--I wasn't following these things closely at the time--he wasn't the first pick of any conservative (I know several impeccably conservative legal figures for whom Roberts was their top pick). Conservative Supreme Court watchers weren't terribly familiar with him. John Sununu told everyone that Roberts was "a home run," and conservatives, presented with the fait accompli, supported his nomination with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
In-the-know legal conservatives are much more supportive of, and in several cases enthusiastic about, Roberts. It may be that the development of the Federalist Society--and the maturation of conservatism, as David Brooks suggests today--has made it possible for conservatives to pull off the stealth strategy today in a way that was not possible fifteen years ago. People familiar with him signal his acceptability to their acquaintances, and the message radiates outward.
There are, of course, drawbacks to this approach. (In the forthcoming issue of the magazine I criticize one very important aspect of the stealth strategy--the notion, extremely popular among conservatives these days, that it's inappropriate for senators to ask nominees pointed questions about their constitutional views.) Assuming that the goal is to get people with particular views or methodologies on the Court, a networking strategy runs a higher risk of yielding a Souter than a paper-trail strategy. It is also the case that one man's elite network of lawyers is another man's conspiracy.
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