The next Associate Justice

Goldstein, Howe's excellent Supreme Court Nomination Blog is profiling all the likely nominees for a vacancy on the Court in the near future. Today they profile the man I bet will be nominated for an Associate Justice's seat (not, importantly, for Chief Justice -- he doesn't have the broad appeal for that, and his politics are too polarizing). But they do it without mentioning the reason, from a comfirmability standpoint, he makes a better choice than most others.

Probably because it's a little impolitic to bring it up, but it's true: The man's wife died aboard American Airlines Flight 77 when it hit the Pentagon. She was on the phone with him. The probably unfortunate and certainly uncomfortable reality is that that fact will soften opposition to his nomination and dominate coverage of Senate proceedings. He may be the most right-wing nominee it's possible to confirm with the Senate comprised as it is. (I make no argument whether that's a particularly good thing or not, but there's no denying it's desirable from the President's point of view.)