A Compassionate Conservative? - The Washington Post has a Page One profiler of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who hails from Sacramento, as a potential choice to replace Stanford-educated Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Rehnny is thought to be considering retirement during the Bush Administration. Kennedy would appear to be a middle-of-the-road conservative and therefore more likely to navigate the Senate's approval process than Nino Scalia, the far right's shining star. Along with fellow Stanford alum Sandra Day O'Connor, Kennedy forms the swing-vote block between the Court's four liberals and the three-man conservative wing of SCOTUS.

While Kennedy swung to the right in Bush v. Gore, the big question is whether Kennedy's liberal policies on gays and abortion would be too much for Bush's Bible-thumping base to swallow. My guess is yes, since any person I would see as an improvement over Rehnquist would likely be considered too much for the right-wingers. Their opposition may be enough to torpedo any Kennedy candidacy. These fellows managed to block Marc Racicot as Attorney General and so we got John Ashcroft instead. Of course, that was before the Senate went to the Democrats, so watch for the Fall elections to be determinative.

P.S. Wouldn't it be just like the liberal Post to try to get out in front on this story to build support for the moderate candidate? Hmm...