It's about time that someone is forced to detail the "private assurances" given to leaders of cultural Republican interest groups on judicial nominees. James Dobson, head of the sanctimonious Focus on the Family, will probably be required by the Senate Judiciary Committee to

explain the private assurances he says he received from the White House about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, the committee's chairman said yesterday.

I think this sort of thing should become more common. The practice of nominating stealth candidates simply because they have such a short paper trail lacks the sort of integrity that should surround the selection process, and that Bush should give a wink and a nod to people like Dobson about Miers' stand on Roe while in the meantime revealing as little as possible about his nominee to everyone else is ridiculous. Americans deserve to know what sorts of principles and what kinds of sympathies the next Supreme Court justice will possess. Assurances from the White House that someone has "a good heart" will not be accepted, especially from this White House.