Countdown to rejection

The New York Times' coverage of this weekend's Justice Sunday gathering suggests that conservatives are becoming lukewarm about Judge Roberts' nomination to the Supreme Court:

"The Christian conservative organizers of this weekend's "Justice Sunday" telecast once talked about using it to rally support for the president's Supreme Court nominee.... But when the cast of influential evangelical Protestants, conservative Catholics and Republican congressmen appeared behind the pulpit of the Two Rivers Baptist megachurch here on Sunday evening, most speakers mentioned the nominee, Judge John G. Roberts Jr., only in passing...In the days before the event, several of the telecast's participants and some of their allies acknowledged that their confidence in the nominee was tempered by reports that he had contributed pro bono aid that helped a gay rights group win a landmark Supreme Court case...Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and principal organizer of the telecast, summed up his more cautious support for President Bush's choice in an e-mail message to supporters after the report 10 days ago: "Trust but verify." In an e-mail message on Friday about the telecast, Mr. Perkins said the event's focus would not be "a pep rally" for the confirmation...Mr. Perkins closed the telecast with a prayer for the nominee. "We pray for Judge Roberts that he would, in fact, be a justice who would honor the Constitution."