On the August 8 edition of Fox News Live, anchor David Asman introduced a segment on Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. by asking: “Could John Roberts get Borked?” During the subsequent conversation with Boston Globe staff writer Nina J. Easton and Washington Times White House correspondent Bill Sammon about inquiries into Roberts's background, the on-screen text read: “Are Democrats looking to 'Bork' John Roberts?”

“Borking” is a conservative term popularized in the late 1980s by the Wall Street Journal editorial page in defense of defeated Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork. Since then, conservatives have revived the term whenever a conservative nominee comes under unwelcome scrutiny (for example: “Brown Gets Borked,” Journal editorial, 10/30/03). The implication of Asman's question is that if the Senate fails to confirm Roberts, this would constitute “Borking” and therefore would be wrong, regardless of the reason.

As conservatives mean it, “to Bork” is “to attack a person's reputation and views unfairly,” as Bork himself stated in a July 1 interview on CNN. The obvious implication of Bork having been “Borked” is that he was wrongly denied a seat on the high court.