>> it may sound shakespearean. give me the principled loser every time. i'll tell you why. once you start to treat the first amendment as something to barter, you validate the views from the other side. it's fluid. i would rather have justices who state the constitution as it is, as i believe it is, that the first amendment may not be absolute, but it's the thing that holds us together. and compromises are dangerous. the fourth amendment where so many exceptions occurred there's more holes than cheese in parts of the fourth amendment. we can't afford that in the free nation as there is in the first amendment. i would rather justice stand on principle. by the way, keith, as much as consensus building is important, they're not going to change their vote because they like alana kagan because they want to get along. they vote the way they believe they should vote. they make compromises to some degree on the doctrine. don't put too much stake in that. it's much more important to be principled and right than