Well, it looks like John McCain will have to stop using Roberts-Alito as if it were one word to describe his preferred type of judicially restrained nominee. In recent disquisitions about judges, McCain has been trying to simultaneously shore up his conservative base without riling up his moderate friends. It's a difficult rope to walk without ...

In covering John McCain's effort to win friends with the conservative base by praising Chief Justice Roberts and Associate Justice Alito (which I agree they deserve, not because they are reflexively conservative, but because they are jurists who are admirably dedicated to an objective appraisal of the law as written), the ...