Speedy Gonzales to the "Rescue?"

Remember how we all breathed a sigh of relief that avowed "moderate" former White House counsel Alberto Gonzales was routed to the attorney-general slot instead of the SCOTUS bullpen? Well, in the wake of yesterday's act of Republican ritual suicide, guess what skeletal hand is rising anew from that musty lake?

How true to their word Democrats will be may become apparent in about a month, when Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist is expected to announce his retirement. Already in Washington rumors are swirling that current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may be under serious consideration for the empty slot left vacant after one of the sitting justices is elevated to fill Rehnquist's role.. "You look at what he hasn't done in his few months at Justice," says a former White House staffer, "and it makes you think he's really been looking ahead and trying to keep as clear from controversy as he can."

Gonzales has managed to sidestep taking a position on the Terri Schiavo legal battle, and beyond stating his basic support for the eight judicial nominees in limbo, he has avoided being embroiled in this current debate. As well, he has made very few public appearances where anything remotely controversial could have been uttered."

Everything points to a Gonzales nomination," says a lobbyist aware of the White House thinking on prospective judicial nominees.

This, of course, would only infuriate an already livid party base even more:

Gonzales would be unacceptable to just about every conservative group in Washington and beyond."I don't know of any conservative who worked to reelect this president who would be satisfied with a Gonzales nomination," says a Senate Judiciary staffer.

"This President was reelected because conservatives want to see a conservative on the Court. If the President has a second opportunity, then perhaps there is room for Gonzales. But only after the President fulfills his promise to voters."

I think this Senate Judiciary staffer understates the matter dramatically. After this latest cave-in, no non-conservative will be acceptable from this President, period. The Gang of Seven stabbed us in the back precisely because the leadership cut them way too much slack. Anybody who thinks that conservatives are not going to start making rafter-rattling demands as a result of this debacle are deluding themselves.

And yet, the President has been put in an impossible position. As a result of "the Deal," he now has no hope of ever getting a conservative past the Democrat/RINO blockade. The minority has effectively assimilated its way, Borg-like, back to majority control. He can still send up one constitutionalist after another, but with the el foldo of the McCain Mutineers in hand as a ready-made PR billyclub, he would only consign himself to irrelevance by doing so. And yet by giving in to Dem demands, he essentially condemns himself and his presidency to the same fate.

That was quite a day's work Arizona's senior senator put in yesterday. Came in for a landing on his own ship and turned kamikaze on the bridge instead. A veritable political USS Forrestal.

Or, perhaps, a political USS Arizona.