One of the below-the-radar lies that liberals told through the elections of 2006 was that it was most importantly a referendum on terror, stem cells, etc.

The hard left's biggest issue in their grab back of power had to do with judges... pure and simple.

Chuck Schumer said so:

More than the inability to influence Iraq policy or the President’s tax cuts, Chuck Schumer says that the single greatest failure of the Democrats as an opposition party was allowing Samuel Alito to join the Supreme Court.

“Judges are the most important,” said Mr. Schumer, who orchestrated the implausible Democratic takeover of the Senate last week. “One more justice would have made it a 5-4 conservative, hard-right majority for a long time. That won’t happen.”

From now on, all the President’s judicial appointments will need to meet the requirements of Mr. Schumer, the Park Slope power broker who has happily accepted the mantle of chief architect for the Democrats’ effort to build a majority for the 2008 elections and beyond.

The Senator also intends, in the coming months, to rework the federal government’s funding priorities in New York’s favor, to steer the Democrats toward a radically new position on Iraq and, while he’s at it, to cement his position as the unofficially declared tactical guru for the national party.

And in case anyone’s wondering, yes, Mr. Schumer is entirely comfortable with this sort of power.

This is why the nomination of Rick Santorum to the Supreme Court becomes even more important. If Schumer is committed to filibustering any current sitting judge and not letting them see the light of day, then the pressure will mount on him with a Santorum nomination due to the long-standing Senate tradition of never filibustering a colleague...