The Supremes Take Center (Hopefully Left) Stage

The big news this morning is the expected announcement by Supreme Court Justice David Souter that he will retire in June at the end of the current session. Appointed to the court in 1990 by President George H. W. Bush on the counsel of Chief of Staff John Sununu, Souter arrived in Washington as something of an unknown. He surprised many by consistently siding with the court's so-called liberal wing, although to an extent fellow Justices Breyer, Ginsburg, and Stevens are liberal only in comparison to the four ultraconservatives on the court's right.

Speculation as to his replacement has already begun. MSNBC has a fairly helpful guide to possible candidates here. I have no pretensions to special insight, so I suppose that this list is as viable as any other. John Nichols of The Nation has his own list here; perhaps unsurprisingly, there's even a Wikipedia article dedicated to Barack Obama Supreme Court Candidates

It's all enough to make a liberal's head spin with the possibilities. I'm reminded of Gerald O'Hara marital advice to Scarlett in Gone With The Wind: "What difference does it matter who you marry as long as he's a Southerner and thinks like us?" I'll try to be more thoughtful than this in the coming weeks...

Kelly Caldwell writes that the dedicated career employees at FEMA may finally be getting the leadership that they and the country deserve...

This is one tough second wife...

You can depend on the right to stoke the anti-immigration Know Nothings by exploiting swine flu...

OK, it's a beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest and Premium T. and I are off to hike on Cougar Mountain...

Friday's Choice: The Gay Cabelleros sing "Jalisco":