DiFi: The Democractic Lincoln Chafee?

Dianne Feinstein is clearly the more Republican of California's two Democratic Senators. Despite her links to liberal San Francisco (which was once known as "Baghdad by the Bay"), she has carried an awful lot of water for the Repugs. But I don't remember a two-day period like this:

Yesterday, she did her best potted palm imitation when she appeared on CNN opposite Sen. Pat Roberts, who served up more absurdity than you'd find in a Monty Python film festival. Did DiFi point out the crack pipe in Roberts' knarled fist?

Of course not. Read the transcript over @ Digby's. Follow her as she tries to find the middle ground between reality and madness. But this kind of Neville Chamberlain appeasement has been her MO for years.

Today, though, she outdid herself.

Supreme Court nominee John Roberts declined Monday to say why he was listed in a leadership directory of the Federalist Society and the White House said he has no recollection of belonging to the conservative group.

The question of Roberts' membership in the society — an influential organization of conservative lawyers and judges formed in the early 1980s to combat what its members said was growing liberalism on the bench — emerged as a vexing issue at the start of another week of meetings for President Bush's nominee on Capitol Hill.

Although no Democrats have publicly threatened to filibuster his nomination, they have said they're concerned that not enough is known about Roberts' personal and legal views. Questions about where he stands on a range of issues, including abortion, likely will be front-line matters at his confirmation hearings later this summer.

Roberts, nominated by Bush last week to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, was asked by a reporter about the discrepancy during a morning get-acquainted meeting with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

He smiled but didn't reply.

"I don't think he wants to take any questions," Feinstein interjected during the session with photographers and reporters that was part of the meeting in her office with the Supreme Court nominee.

Well OF COURSE he doesn't, lady. That is pages 1-20 of the Rove playbook here. Your job is to make him answer anyway, not throw him a goddamned lifeline.

Even if Dems don't pull the filibuster ripcord, the goal in our doomed effort should be to fight for the truth and its dissemination. Make him come clean where we can all hear. Find the dirt in his views and dish it far and wide. And if the Republicans want to affirm a soiled man as the next Supreme Court Justice, shine a white-hot spotlight on their partisan nonsense.