If one listens carefully, one can hear the sounds of conservatives hearts breaking all over the lower 48.

Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday picked a former board member of Planned Parenthood to fill the latest vacancy on the Alaska Supreme Court despite efforts by a conservative Christian group to convince her to do otherwise.

Heartache?

Now, before you write off Palin completely there are some extenuating circumstances. You should know the way the process in Alaska goes. A liberal board (made up of leftist trial lawyer types) nominates two people and the Governor has to pick one. And from what I understand, neither option was great but of the two, it would appear that Palin may have picked the more liberal of the two, at least according to Alaska Family Council’s Jim Minnery. Minnery wrote Palin in support of the other candidate, Judge Eric Smith saying Smith was “more conservative” and that Christen would be “another activist on the Court.”

This would not seem to be good news for those who love Sarah. There’s one thing conservatives take seriously – and that’s judges.

I hope this wasn’t some calculated move by Sarah Palin to show that she’s not an extremist. But either way, I believe many people are not going to be happy.

Some people who clearly are happy, however are liberal bloggers. According to the Alaska Standard the liberal bloggers there are esctatic.

“Ohmigawd!??The governor’s been taken over by space aliens.??What an improvement!”

“Wow. Way to go Palin! I can’t believe I just said that. But hey, credit where credit is due.”

“Glad to see a woman in the position to balance out the court. Good for Palin for keeping bible thumper beliefs out of the court system and honoring the separation of Church and State.”

“This is the one good action that Sarah Palin has taken over the past three years. And I have no problem admitting it. Great pick!!!! So even if the wing-nut parental consent bill passes, the state Supremes now have enough votes to overturn it as unconstitutional.”

The fact that the liberals are so excited is likely a bad sign.

Years ago, then Governor Murkowski refused to appoint any of the names given to him but caved after the liberal media jumped ugly on him. Likely, Palin didn’t want to make this her fight as it would’ve surely become a national spectacle.

In short, this smells like political calculation by Sarah. And it’s one I don’t think pro-life conservatives are going to forget.

One can almost imagine the one person who is happily reading this news today – Mike Huckabee.

Some updates can be found at Conservatives 4 Palin.

Thanks to Matt Swaim for alerting me to the story.