Missouri Plan opponents still very excited about the promise of a hyper-partisan future

GOP Speaker Pro Tem Bryan Pratt believes that the outrageous politicking we've been experiencing in the Sonia Sotomayor nomination process has really inspired Missourians to add unrestrained partisanship into our own judicial selection process. Pratt spoke on a panel yesterday at the Conservative Heartland Leadership Conference with State Sen. Jim Lembke and others about their legislative and ballot-initiative strategies for undermining Missouri's widely-praised process. On the panel, Pratt said the right-wing hysteria about Sotomayor has prompted "a greater grassroots movement'' to push for "dramatic changes" to the Missouri Plan.

And why wouldn't we want the same sort of junk here in Missouri?  I mean, who wouldn't love informed and well-reasoned questions about the influence of menstruation on judges' decisions, shameless hypocrisy from partisans on manufactured issues, or weeks of hand-wringing about how sorry politicians are for making outrageous claims about nominees.  Why wouldn't we want more of that? It sounds absolutely fabulous!

To right-wing ideologues, maybe.

Also: The discussion at this week's Conservative Heartland Leadership Conference may provide us with a taste with how the proposed changes will be sold to the public.  On one hand, the Director of the main anti-Missouri Plan organization and Pratt were feeding red meat to the right-wing base about the "dramatic changes" they'd like to see. At the exact same time, consummate insider (and poster-child for influence peddling at the Capitol) Carl Bearden was advocating "modest changes." They all have the same desires to gut the state's nonpartisan process, of course -- they've got to sell it to their respective bases.