Roberts as olive branch?
John Yoo, writing for the Washington Post thinks so.
Democrats should recognize an olive branch when they see it.By choosing John G. Roberts to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court, President Bush came as close as possible to finding a non-ideological, consensus nominee who can also lay claim to being a Republican.
Perhaps I'm naive, but I do think that enough Senate Democrats will indeed see it this way to avoid a filibuster. Of course the Kos/DU/MoveOn types will herald the apocalypse, but they would do so no matter who Bush were to nominate, and everybody knows it. In this way, such groups guarantee their own irrelevance, and moderate Senate Democrats can safely ignore them.