Before Bush makes the announcement (and now that it is apparent that Clement is NOT the choice), I am going to make a fairly wild guess.

Side Note: if this happens, then we know two things: (1) Rove is brilliant; (2) The So-Called Moderate Democrats who were part of the Gang of 14 screwed us more than we knew.

My prediction--Either Janice Rogers Brown or Priscilla Owen.

Having been confirmed so recently makes a Democratic filibuster of these right-wing judicial activists VERY hard to pull off without major damage. The spin machine will simply say "What have these capable nominees done in the past 10 weeks to make themselves unconfirmable??"

If I were them (and I thank the Higher Power I am not), this is exactly what I would do. Sure, it guarantees a fight, but it is a fight where they start with (God forbid) the moral high ground. Having cleared the Senate less than two months ago, a fight would look less like principled concern, and more like political opportunism. It is a battle we'd lose.

I would be delighted to be wrong, but they are nothing if not deviously clever. I am fearful.

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's approval ratings continue to abate (as the voting public sees that his idea of reform is to cut school funding while he attends multi-million dollar fundraisers to fill his campaign coffers), we are starting to see large groups display their displeasure with the gov.

In an excellent display of grassroots organizing, local public employees unions (particularly nurses and teachers) have taken to picketing the Schwarzenegger fundraisers. They are getting ample media attention in the LA market. On Tuesday, as Schwarzenegger was netting $3 million for his faux reform propaganda campaign at a fundraiser in Orange County, what appeared to be well over a hundred protestors lined the road into the hotel, raising all kinds of ruckus. Since they did so in a driving rainstorm, it looked absolutely great on television.