John at AMERICAblog says:

The GOP just lost all of their Supreme Court talking points. Who in the GOP is going to be able to stand up with a straight face and say "every nominee deserves an up or down vote"?

Who? Everybody, John. They're all going to say that Miers wasn't blocked at all, because there was never a vote or a hearing in the Senate. They're going to say that a Democratic filibuster is very, very different, and utterly beyond the pale.

Now, they may not get away with it. The Democrats should still plan to filibuster the upcoming Federalist Society extremist, and argue that what's good for the goose is good for the gander. It might work. But, John, don't count on it. Centrist opinion-mongers (Nicholas Kristof? David Broder? Richard Cohen?) will quite possibly join right-wingers in arguing, essentially, that the borking of Miers wasn't obstructionism but a filibuster of a wingnut is.

John goes on to say:

Yes, Bush will pick a wack-job for the next nominee, even though he knows the wack-job won't be confirmed. Bush will fight for his nominee, blah blah blah, and the nomination will fail. Then Bush will say, see, I tried - then he'll nominate Alberto Gonzales, who the religious right hates, and get him confirmed. Bush will be able to argue that he gave the religious right want they wanted and it just didn't work. Oh well, time for Alberto.

...all of this makes me very very very happy...

Alberto "I Heart Torture" Gonzales on the Supreme Court? That makes you happy? Say it ain't so, John. Fortunately, if Bush ignores his masters a second time and nominates Gonzales, there is a 0% chance of his confirmation -- it will be a shot-for-shot remake of the Miers fiasco, because the religious right will not accept him.