The Rubio-Estrada Link

Jay Nordlinger makes a point that strikes home regarding the man who will likely be Florida's next Senator...

The Democrats seem especially determined to beat Marco Rubio, the Republican Senate nominee down in Florida. They have to beat him now: otherwise he could be president. You sense that they sense that. I’m reminded of what they did to Miguel Estrada, in 2001. Estrada was the brilliant and inspiring young attorney whom George W. Bush nominated for the D.C. Court of Appeals. Many said that he could be the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. Democrats had to kill him at the appeals level: for he would be more difficult to block at the higher level. And kill him they did. Schumer & Co. accomplished that. And it was one of the most sickening political displays of the last decade.

I don't know if Rubio will someday be President, but count me among the people who knew Miguel Estrada back in the late 1990's and fully expected the guy was a Supreme Court possibility. He's flat-out brilliant (and not just because he correctly and repeatedly mocked my choice in ties), but that wasn't enough to win confirmation to the D.C. Circuit, or even a vote on his nomination. Keep in mind, his nomination came about at the same time as John Roberts' nomination to the D.C. Circuit. If the Dems don't filibuster Estrada, he may have been Chief Justice right now. And if Republicans ever wanted to play the race card, here is a prime example -- much of the reason Democrats filibustered Estrada was because he's a conservative who's also Hispanic.

The good news -- even with every attempt to stop Rubio, they can't filibuster him. And it also looks like they can't beat him.