The problem is that conservatives have allowed the liberal/socialists to Bork every candidate that runs for any office.

In fact they start the destroy tactics against any conservative possibly preparing to run for a future office immediately after a current election is over.

Look at how they are attempting to destroy Marco Rubio just in case he wants to run in 2016.

We cannot get ahead without getting down in the trenches and talking the talk in their language, that low information voters understand.

#1, we don´t need the Dems to Bork our people. We do it ourselves. Our targets are not just the Marco Rubios, but also the Scott Browns, in fact anyone with an R behind the name who doesn´t fit our rigid templates. And, the templates aren´t the same from one critic to another, so what chance does any potential GOP candidate have?

Completely agree with #2. We are so rigidly committed to ideological purity that the dems don´t have to worry about losing. They know we will defeat our own candidate(s) by not showing up to vote because our candidate has not passed the purity test. No wonder we sound so shrill after every election.

Commenters mention that Bork was against this seemingly good bill or that seemingly good bill.
Often people vote against a seemingly good, nicely sounding, bill because it was poorly written.

The problem isn´t "ideological purity". The problem is the GOP leadership, which is refusing to support the conservative candidates who enabled the current GOP leadership to be where they are.

"Ideological purity" -- come on now, can´t you be more original?

If by ´´ideological purity´´ you mean opposing the destruction of the Constitution as in repealing the 2nd Amendment, weakening the 1st Amentment, ignoring the 10th Amendment and destroying the rule of law when it suits the fancy of the elite establishment beltway crowd, DAMN RIGHT!

I would say a more recent example of Borking would be Harriet Myers. Still don´t understand why people didn´t like her, but yet were ok with the fact that SHE vetted the great judges that everyone was gaga over. Seriously, she was the mover behind Bush picking them.

FTA: "It’s a good thing that the man who Bork became after his defeat wasn’t confirmed to the Supreme Court:...(snip)America would indeed have been a more illiberal place."

Well, it´s actually a crying shame he wasn´t confirmed. We could stand to be a more "illiberal" place. We are not just a liberal place, we are so Marxist/Socialist I´m fearful we have lost our Republic forever. The Communists have finally gotten America without firing a shot; just like they predicted they would decades ago.

If only we could convince Bork and Biden to switch places.

forgive me for finding this highly annoying. First, what moral compass was Rosen using in 1987 that caused him to have "celebrated Bork’s defeat, I remember feeling that the nominee was being treated unfairly." It wasn´t a joke, Rosen. Thanks for helping Biden screw up our history for your amusement. 2nd, why didn´t you understand this seven years ago when you wrote that article wringing your hands over right wing judicial activism in the NY Times Magazine. As I wrote then, "Missing from Rosen´s article on right-wing judicial activism was any mention of Robert Bork´s unsuccessful bid for the Supreme Court. So intent were the liberal members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to inflict damage on a Reagan nominee that they failed to grasp Bork´s most important point. He argued that if liberal judges could find unenumerated, imaginary but treasured "rights" in the Constitution, then it was only a matter of time before conservative activist judges could apply the same standards." Bork may have been conservative as a voter but as a judge he didn´t believe in either conservative or liberal jurisprudence but only following the law. You and Biden and Kennedy and Specter and Leahy have made Judicial activism on all sides the prevailing theory and given us a parade of non-entities both Democrat and Republican. Your apology is 25 years too late. I do not accept it.

Bravo, #9! Excellent comments.

Whenever we hear Democrats, Liberals and News Commentators bewail "polarization", we can look back at the vile, cynical Soviet-style propaganda fest and Maoist Kangaroo Court that was the Bork hearings and enjoy whatever discomfort these clowns are experiencing in today´s polarized America.

The polarization began when about a third of the country suddenly woke up and realized, thanks to these hearings and the demogoguery of the despicable Edward Moore Kennedy what detestable, ruthless, nasty unprinicpled bullies liberals are.

The Second American Civil War went nuclear with Bork and has resulted in a scorched earth, forever divided nation. With Bork, Democrats smelled American blood, tasted American blood, and have been feasting on a dying America ever since.

I used to work with a lot of far-left Yale law grads. They uniformly acknowledged that their teacher, Bob Bork, was one of the finest legal minds they had ever encountered. We can all thank Teddy Kennedy for blocking him. He´s now defiling Arlington, surrounded by real heroes. One of the greatest blights on the twentieth century.

So how many Republicans voted for Holder (I know - not a judge but still...), for Kagan, for Ruthie, Sotomayor, etc. But when it comes time for the Dems to vote for an excellent and well qualified candidate for a judgeship who happens to have opposing views, that person gets zero votes.

The "Lion of the Senate" was such a slime ball, plus of course the reason Mary Jo Kopechne is not alive---but nobody seems to hold andy of that againt the man. That´s why this article is so amazing.

Judge Bork´s death has focused a powerful, retrospective spotlight on wretched, despicable tactics employed routinely by liberals these days.

The decency of Judge Bork leaves them without justifiable excuse, and causes those with any sense of decency of their own to squirm in the glare of truth.

The spotlight is only temporary, and, so, the slime of their usual rationalizations soon will ooze them back into their comfort zone. They will be again ignoring a diminishing twinge of conscience to "celebrate" any resulting successes of increasingly contemptible tactics by those with no conscience at all. When all is said and done, the left seem to believe ´the end excuses any evil´, truth and conscience be damned.

One thing we should remember about Edward ´Teddy´ Kennedy, other than the despicable human being that he so obviously was, is that he was the great, and I mean "great", friend he was to Sen. Orrin Hatch.
Hatch constantly reminded us of that so many times in referring to Teddy as "my friend, and I mean, my friend."
That tells us, more than anything else, all we need to know about Orrin Hatch. You are known by the company you keep.

#2, I agree but let´s remember the moderates trash those who deviate from their own ideological purity. Just wanted to get that in. It´s obvious the GOP doesn´t really stand for much of anything anymore. These things must be sorted out and a strong party built or forget it against the left.

Thr deliberate destruction of Robert Bork showed the degree of evil within the democratric party and the willingness to destroy anyone that stood in the way of the "progressives". That same willingness exists today although carried mostly by communists (read Czars) and morons ( read Kerry, Biden, Schumer, Franken,)
The leadership (read lack) of the Republican Party deserves partial credit for the fractured state of affairs due to their lack of support for conservative candidates.
The sad part is "Borking" another supreme court nominee may not aoccur again before the ship state sinks.

"[I]t has been taken to extremes that neither Biden nor Bork, who died today at 85, could have imagined."

Really?!? A lot of not only imagined what that hideous and unprecedented smear job would do to this nation´s body politic, we were appalled. That would include Judge Bork, I believe, who characterized the hearings as having been unmatched in their vulgarity, their hypocrisy, and their mendacity.

Judge Bork knew how bad the Democrats´ craven demagoguery was for America. Joe Biden knew too, but he´s never cared about ethics or civility; he´s always been a nasty smear artist. (Biden, who was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time, delayed the hearing for 2 1/2 months to allow plenty of time to trash Judge Bork, publicly and relentlessly, in advance of the hearings.) American politics have been vastly more polarized and just plain ugly ever since. Indeed America is still paying a terrible price for the Democrats´ shocking mistreatment of Judge Bork.

RIP, fine man.