"Have you been given a gift, in a sense?"

So Harry Reid is asked in an NPR interview about who the next Supreme Court nominee ought to be. The gift in question is President Bush's low popularity numbers. Don't they give the Democrats more leverage? Reid astutely declines the bait. The low numbers represent sad problems that are "not a gift for anyone," he deftly says.

Reid refers to a list of names, which he's conveyed to the President, of persons who are unacceptable to the Democrats, whose nomination would be felt as "a poke in the eye with a sharp stick." That turns out to be another way of saying these are the nominees we would filibuster.

For some reason, he emphasizes that he wants a nominee who is more of a trial lawyer. He seems passionate faulting John Roberts for never having argued to a jury or taken a deposition. What's that about?

UPDATE: Well, Harry, I hope you like Harriet.