Good pick, bad analogy

George Will endorses J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to fill Justice O’Connor’s seat. Judge Wilkinson is not my top pick, but he’d be a good one (he was on a “short list” I came up with right after last year’s election which was limited to judges with whom I have some experience).
Ramesh Ponnuru claims that Wilkinson is another Lewis Powell, but I know the Fourth Circuit pretty well and I disagree with Ponnuru. However, Will doesn’t help matters by calling Powell “the embodiment of mainstream conservative jurisprudence.” See this piece by William Stuntz, who like Wilkinson clerked for Powell, to see why Will is wrong.