Just a quick peep into the mind of the Left, and at what qualifies as “fair and balanced” therein.

Reporting on the cloture vote for Justice Janice Rogers Brown — which finally passed by 65 to 32, clearing the way for an actual vote (gasp) — AP evidently thought it was being a bit daring by actually quoting a supporter defending Justice Brown, instead of their usual tendentious characterization of the Right’s arguments. But take a look at all of the quotations from supporters and critics alike, along with AP’s own smug editorializing… everything that is opinion, in other words, rather than straight reporting of facts:

Brown is “one of the best nominations the president has made. She is a woman of integrity and ability,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala….

But Democrats have been blocking Brown because they see her as a conservative judicial activist who ignores the law in favor of her own political views. They are critical of her record as a jurist who supported limits on abortion rights and corporate liability and opposed affirmative action.

“Her record leaves no doubt that she would attempt to impose her own extreme views on people’s everyday lives, instead of following the law,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass….

“Janice Rogers Brown is one of President Bush’s most ideological and extreme judicial nominees,” said Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s no. 2 Democrat. Added Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee: “Judge Brown was the least worthy pick this president has made for the appellate court, and that’s based on her record….”

“This highly qualified African-American woman, the daughter of an Alabama sharecropper, has received appalling treatment by a group of hypocrites in the Senate, who always claim to support equal opportunity, yet refused to allow her nomination to even see the light of day,” said Niger Innis, spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)….

“Janice Rogers Brown has a dangerous and extreme legal philosophy that is completely at odds with working families’ interests and values,” said Jon Hiatt, a lawyer for the AFL-CIO. “Her appointment to the D.C. Circuit would put workers’ rights and fundamental protections at risk.”

As my old DI used to say when we would line up for drill with one idiot (not me, I swear!) standing nose to nose with a lamppost and therefore completely unable to march… “what is wrong with this picture?”

I’ll give you a hint: the arguments against Justice Brown are that she has extreme political views; that she is ideological; that she would impose them on the country; that she doesn’t follow the law; that she oppposes abortion rights, corporate liability, affirmative action, and worker’s rights; and that she is “completely at odds with working families’ interests and values,” which last, by the way, is the final paragraph of the article.

And the arguments for Justice Brown are…?

Bingo. The anti-Brown quotations and opinion-mongering by AP provide harsh, specific, clearly articulated attacks on the justice (or the “conservative California Supreme Court justice,” as they call her). But the only two quotations in support of Justice Brown (no pro-Brown editorializing, natch) are vague, uninformative, nonresponsive to the charges of the critics, and in fact boil down to saying she’s “one of the best nominations,” has “integrity and ability,” and is “highly qualified.”

The conclusion is clear: obviously, there are no arguments in her favor! The charges against her must be devastating, because even her supporters can’t explain away a single one of them! They’re intellectually bankrupt! AP had to go outside the beltway to a conservative blacktivist to find a single person to say something nice about her!

Thus, once again, we see how astonishingly easy it is for the Left to win an argument… so long as they get to script both sides.