In evaluating the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court, we need to remember that the GOP is comprised, if I might overgeneralize a bit to make a point, of two groups.

• The Trailer Park Right (TPR) – neo-Puritan, Big Jesus social authoritarians who fear the breakneck pace of technical and cultural change in contemporary society and who care passionately about abortion, gay rights, and issues they don’t understand, like reproductive technologies. Pro-theocracy.
• The Country Club Right (CCR) – Big Money economic libertarians, the corporate movers and shakers who make up a vast majority of America’s hyper-rich. They care passionately about their financial interests and are primarily concerned with the rights of financial leaders to loot as much “value” from their businesses as possible. Pro-kleptocracy.

The early opposition on Roberts has lunged predictably at his record on issues that concern the TPR. MoveOn does call Roberts a “corporate lobbyist and lawyer, consistently favoring wealthy corporations over regular Americans,” but they spend most of the e-mail they shipped out this morning on the social side of the question, saying he’s:

• Wrong on civil rights: Roberts worked to keep Congress from defending parts of the Voting Rights Act.
• Wrong on human rights: As a appeals court judge, Roberts ruled that the Geneva Convention doesn’t apply to some prisoners of war.
• Wrong on our right to religious freedom: Roberts argued that schools should be able to impose religious speech on attendees.
• Wrong on women’s rights: Roberts wrote that “Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be overruled.” He also weighed in on behalf of Operation Rescue, a violent anti-abortion group, in a federal case.

While all of this is precisely what we’d been expecting, my gut tells me his social record isn’t what got him the nod. That’s window dressing – the real appeal a guy like this holds for the Bushies is that for the next 20-30 years they have a locked-in autovote on any case affecting their economic interests. Slate details some of it here, and there’s a little more in the WashPost story here. I’ve seen bits and pieces of rulings he’s made and cases he’s argued in several other places, as well, and while I still have some more research to do, it does seem evident that Roberts agrees with Big Biz on just about everything.

Stay tuned. Already the Puppetmasters have us transfixed by the hand holding the bright shiny instead of the one picking our pockets, and frankly this has been the template since the ’80s. Eye on the ball, people….

Also, eyes back on Treasongate.