Reply #4: I actually don't care if Fat Tony becomes Chief Justice.

[snippy]

The Chief Justice has very little power and Fat Tony is not a consensus builder so I do not think he would be any more persuasive as Chief Justice than he is now.

If he is nominated for Chief Justice, then that means that there will be two confirmation battles, one for him and one for whoever Bush nominates for the vacancy on the Court created by Rehnquist's departure. I would rather the democrats fight the new nomination more vigorously than a nomination of Fat Tony to become Chief Justice. Neither of these possible nominations will change the balance of the Court. The most important battles will be over any nominations which do. The democrats could gain a little "political capital" with the public by not fighting too much over the replacement for Rehnquist. And we can point to that when the republicans spout their hypocritical lies about democrats blocking Bush's judicial nominees.