Supreme Court Confirmations Are as Messy as They Should Be

By JEFFREY ROSEN

In the wake of Harriet E. Miers's withdrawal of her nomination to the Supreme Court, and with a looming battle over the confirmation of her successor, Samuel A. Alito Jr., there is a chorus of laments, in books and in the news media, that the process is broken.

There is nothing unusual about this hand-wringing....