Democratic senators' mascot - Sun Tzu...

Drudge has more evidence on the open-minded Senate Democrats. (H/T to Betsy Newmark)

Senate Judiciary Committee member Chuck Schumer got busy plotting away on the cellphone aboard a Washington, DC-New York Amtrak -- plotting Democrat strategy for the upcoming Supreme Court battle.

Schumer promised a fight over whoever the President’s nominee was: “It's not about an individual judge… It's about how it affects the overall makeup of the court.”

The chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was overheard on a long cellphone conversation with an unknown political ally, and the DRUDGE REPORT was there!

Schumer proudly declared: “We are contemplating how we are going to go to war over this.”

Schumer went on to say how hard it was to predict how a Supreme Court justice would turn out: “Even William Rehnquist is more moderate than they expected. The only ones that resulted how they predicted were [Antonin] Scalia and [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg. So most of the time they've gotten their picks wrong, and that's what we want to do to them again.”

Schumer later went on to mock the “Gang of 14” judicial filibuster deal and said it wasn’t relevant in the Supreme Court debate.

“A Priscilla Owen or Janice Rogers Brown style appointment may not have been extraordinary to the appellate court but may be extraordinary to the Supreme Court.”

By the time the train hit New Jersey, Schumer shifted gears and called his friend and “Gang of 14” member, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.

The two talked in a very friendly manner about doing an event sometime this week together.

U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 2:

He [The President]...by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint ... Judges of the supreme Court

Senator Schumer apparently has a different reading of that than I do.

The truly appalling part of what's happening now (behind the scenes) and what's going to happen (out in the open AND behind the scenes) can be summarized thusly: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, confirmed by a vote of 96-3 in the Senate, in 50 days. Is it even remotely conceivable that Bush nominates someone further from the judicial and societal mainstream than Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I say no. Is it even remotely conceivable to picture the Republicans in the Senate minority gearing up to "wage war" on a Supreme Court nominee the way the Democrats are? Again, I say no.

But that's what happens when the officials [read: mainstream press] are playing for one of the teams...