Courtesy of our friends at

Courtesy of our friends at Real Clear Politics, here is Robert Novak’s take on the politics behind the Bush Adminstration briefs in the Michigan cases. We at Power Line don’t completely trust Novak and his sources. When Novak says that Alberto Gonzales might have blown his shot at a Supreme Court nomination, Novak may mean that he or one of his sources hopes that Gonzales has blown his shot. In this case, though, we find plausibility in Novak’s claim that Gonzales had a major hand in weakening the Administration’s briefs. Less plausible is Novak’s claim that the “sidestepping” on this issue is something that President Bush “has sought to avoid.” The article by Ward Connerly that we posted the other day shows that Bush has been sidestepping on this issue, without any assistance from Gonzales, for some time. Finally, Novak may be correct in his claim that Gonzales is now compromised as a potential Supreme Court nominee. On the other hand, it can be argued that, in a sense, Gonzales is in a better position because he can now more effectively be sold to Hispanics as a supporter of their (alleged) interests.