Bush picks a fight

GNUS INTERNATIONAL

Dubya has picked his new nominee for the Supreme Court, Samuel Alito (BBC profile). An anti-abortion conservative. There's a bloody surprise.

In helping to throw out Harriet Miers, who (like her would-be predecessor Sandra Day O'Connor) was an unknown quantity, the Left may have made things worse for themselves. If Alito is confirmed, he will line up with Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas against Stevens, Ginsburg, Breyer and Souter, balancing the court 5-4 in favour of conservatives (although Kennedy is something of an unknown quantity, as O'Connor was).

It would be a welcome, sweat-wiping breather for the president who is now in freefall.