Supremely Screwed

By now you likely know that Sandra Day O'Connor is retiring from the Supreme Court.

And you know what that means.

That's right, a personal liberties going-out-of-business sale. Time to catch up on all those little freedoms you enjoy while there's still time.

So go ahead ... Hankering to sodomize in the privacy of your own bedroom? Better do it quickly. Wanna pull a little affirmative action? Affirm away. Time to abort that special someone? Abort now. Considering the sizable payback that the White House owes the religious right of the Republican Party, one can only guess what loopiness lies ahead when Dubya whips out those Lone Star State-sized cojonoes to force an entire nation to collectively teabag its way to a theocracy.

This bodes really, really, really, really poorly for the Supreme Court ... or really, really, really, really well for the Star Chamber, depending on your point of view. But with the departure of a key moderate, it's a cinch that the prez will deliver a sop to the far right.

Bull Moose is among those in the blogosphere predicting the mother of all Beltway battles:

"This is the true payoff time for the right wing of the Republican Party. For conservatives, nothing else matters. And this Administration cannot alienate their core supporters at a time the President's popularity is plummeting."

Moreover, Dubya doesn't have the interest in bringing people together that his dad, or even Reagan, did -- and whatever semblance of good will the current prez might have had for Capitol Hill Democrats has certainly dried up amid the beating he has endured over Social Security and the never-ending war.

O'Connor was nominated to the court by one of the most conservative presidents in modern American history. She was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. She is a conservative jurist unfettered by the shackles of political ideology.

You expect to see a similar successor? Fat chance. The religious right will not stomach a nomination of the likes of a David Souter or Anthony Kennedy, both of whom turned out to be disappointments to hard-line conservatives.

David Sirota of Sirotablog suspects we will see Karl Rove and company pull the ol' bait-and-switch.

"With Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's resignation today, I have a prediction: O'Connor and Chief Justice William Rehnquist will both retire...Karl Rove will have Bush put up one crazy, wild-eyed conservative lunatic in the John Ashcroft mold, and one hard-right winger who seems 'moderate' compared to the crazy...the lunatic goes down to defeat, but the hard-right winger gets through, and Bush replaces the lunatic with another hard-right winger as a 'compromise.'

"If just O'Connor retires, it will be much the same strategy - first nominate a wild-eyed lunatic. It's a win-win for Bush - either the lunatic gets appointed, or the lunatic loses, and then Bush puts up someone a shade less crazy - but equally as conservative - as the 'compromise.' "

The Washington Post surveys some of the possible successors here, while The Los Angeles Times does its take here.

In the meantime, prepare for a political battle likely to make Fallujah look like a potato sack race.