I'm just using the adjective 'jaw-dropping' way too much lately

Wonkette posted this, but I find that taking things out of context to three or four degrees just makes them even more ironic, you know?

So without further ado, grok this jaw-dropping story from Time: Justice Scalia: The Charm Offensive, which states that the two leading candidates for Supreme Court Chief Justice are Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, and that Bush would like to appoint Thomas just so he (Bush) can go down in history as having appointed the first black Chief Justice.

Isn't that pretty much like saying the two leading candidates for Dark Lord of the Universe are Darth Vader and Jar Jar Binks, and the Emperor favors the latter because he's more cuddly? Or put it this way: The two leading candidates for Best U.S. City are San Francisco and Indianapolis, and Indianapolis is the favorite because San Francisco scares the shit out of most of the rest of the country?

Scalia is satanic. But Thomas is a bigger joke than Bush himself -- he makes George Bush look like Churchill, which is probably another reason Bush likes him. And if Thomas became Chief Justice, he'd just run things the way Scalia wanted him to anyway, because Scalia has had him buffaloed from day one. So why not just bring it it out into the open and nominate Scalia?

Forgotten in all this is the fact that Rehnquist is still alive and kicking, and in fact just administered the oath of office on a cloudy twenty-degree day. Having everybody eagerly plan for his replacement seems so ghoulish it almost makes you feel sorry for him. Almost.