The Big Announcement

So today comes news that the Prez will announce his Supreme Court nominee at 9 this evening. I'll be tuned in. It's actually sooner than I expected.

For those who are interested in this issue (and if you aren't you're wrong), allow me to suggest that you watch the announcement on C-SPAN and then tune the web browser to The Supreme Court Nomination Blog.

As you are no doubt aware, various interest and pressure groups on both the right and left have stockpiled hundreds of millions of dollars to either praise or fight this nominee, whoever she or he (she) may be. You can bet that all the cable news channels will have "analysis" following the announcement consisting of two people from absolute opposite ends of the spectrum screaming at each other for no good reason and hurling half-truths about the nominee. It'll be just like Crossfire, only more pointless! (If that's even possible.)

Your best bet is to get your news and information about the nominee from the aforementioned nomination blog. It's run by partners of the law firm Goldstein & Howe, who make their business as Supreme Court lawyers; though they've admitted that it's impossible to be truly neutral, they also know that they will very likely be presenting cases before this nominee next term, and thus have a vested personal interest in reporting only the nominee's personal and legal history and providing links to the various biassed coverage. That's the type of source you want.

For the record, my money has been on Judge Edith "Joy" Clement of the 5th Circuit since Laura Bush let slip last weekend that she wanted hubby to nominate a woman. Prior to that I was betting on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The Nomination Blog are saying that they do not believe it will be Clement, and have a few reasons for this. I don't know enough of the "dark horse" candidates to change my bet, but I'd be deeply surprised if Judges Edith Jones or Priscilla Owen were the nominees. This leaves us with a handful of Republican women Senators (Snowe or Collins of Maine, Hutchison of Texas; I wouldn't expect any other), or someone from deep left field. Honestly? Deep left field may be the most likely of all.