In the Funhouse

So let me get this straight. Following on Sandra Day O'Connor's irresponsible decision to retire, the die-hard right is saying that
a) Alberto Gonzalez, the Hombre Viernes to Bush's Robinson Crusoe, isn't right-wing enough because he is "apparently still developing his philosophy" (as one conservative critic says) and
b) the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee shouldn't be allowed to ask questions about the eventual nominee's "personal political views or legal thinking on any issue."

What? A man who thinks the Geneva Conventions are silly and provided the legal cover for our human-rights abuses at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and Bagram is insufficiently right-wing? And Democrats can't ask judges about their judicial thinking?

If this is a postmodern funhouse, I'm apparently looking not in a mirror that makes me look tall, fat, or wavy, but one that makes me feel like I'm stupid, because I don't get it.