Gear Up

First it was a joke, then it wasn't: Sandra Day O'Connor is leaving the Supreme Court. Remember when bipartisanship carried the day and the nuclear option was averted? Yeah, say goodbye to that (not that the reach-around across the aisle wouldn't have been a load of manure even if it could have been a permanent solution).

I have no idea who O'Connor's replacement will be but I'd say it's a pretty good bet that whoever it is would have voted with the majority in Raich and Kelo. George Bush's dad George Bush gave us David Souter (fat lot of good that turned out to be, huh?), Reagan gave us Anthony Kennedy (ditto), but George Bush's son George Bush has demonstrated nothing but utter contempt for the federalist/limited government branch of his own party. I'd be pretty surprised if the nominee isn't somebody with a Family Research Council certificate of authenticity (or at the very least is highly amenable to James Dobson)---unless it's a vacuous apparatchik like Gonzales.

UPDATE: Okay, here's an idea of who the replacement might be (via Andrew Sullivan). So, no chance of Posner at all, huh?