The Black Republican

Since Chris missed his chance to be declared a political psychic I thought I would get my prediction in print before the event occurs. So here is my attempt to become a famous political psychic (I mean, I can dream can't I?): Some time after the end of the current US Supreme Court term (end of June) and the beginning of the next (October), Chief Justice William Rehnquist will announce his retirement and President Bush will nominate Janice Rogers Brown (login req.), now a member of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to replace him. And I don't mean just elevating one of the other sitting Justices to Chief, such as Scalia or Thomas, and having her as an Associate. No, I mean nominating her directly to Chief Justice. Doing that will result in only one Senate fight by the same Senate that just made a filibuster deal to allow her come to the floor for a vote and then proceeded to vote 56 to 43 to confirm her.

If this prediction should come to pass, let's see the Democrats that made that filibuster deal, as well as those facing re-election in 2006, try to say that a person they just voted to confirm all of a sudden somehow represents a new "extraordinary circumstance" that would thereby justify a filibuster. Personally, I hope all this does happen, and if it does, I really hope they do have the stones to filibuster. Then we will have a beautifully symbolic and historically ironic picture - Senate Democrats, led by Robert "Sheets" Byrd, leading a filibuster to deny the vote to an African-American daughter of Alabama sharecroppers.