No biographical profile of [John] Roberts is complete without a few references to his famous modesty. According to Google, the word "modesty" has already appeared alongside "John Roberts" more than 18,000 times. By contrast, the search engine records a grand total of 424 mentions — lifetime — for "modesty" and "Karen Hughes."

Maybe Bush should have put Roberts in charge of winning America some friends in the world. His message is coming through loud and clear: "Trust me — I'm modest."

I thought I’d put the term "Bruce Reed" into a few searches. The search "Bruce Reed" and modesty: 123 hits. "Bruce Reed" and arrogance: 428 hits. Obviously, Bruce Reed is far more often described as arrogant than as modest. Who can deny the logic?