Never can say goodbye

The Supreme Court Nominations Blog catches a comment about vacancies from Clarence Thomas yesterday in an article from the Fulton County Daily Report. Thomas, in Atlanta for the swearing in of Leah Ward Sears as chief justice of the Georgia state supreme court, made a reference to "imagined resignations." This is leading some to consider that Rehnquist is planning to hold on for another term.

That's possible, but I see another reading of Thomas' comments. Like many of the justices, Thomas often comes across as hostile to the speculations of outsiders about how the Court operates and what the justices do. Scalia, especially, seems to cop a "how dare you interlopers turn your vulgar curiosity toward your betters?" attitude on occasion, as evidenced in his recusal memo last year. I'm reminded of the scene from The Madness of King George, wherein the King's doctor tells him "I have you in my eye, sir.." indicating that the doctor stands in judgment of the sovereign's conduct, to which the King responds: "I am the King. I tell, I am not TOLD. I am the VERB, sir, not the OBJECT."

From this point of view, the adjective "imagined" as used by Thomas isn't a description indicating that resignations aren't forthcoming as much as an insult, derogating the controversy as based on unworthy supposition or conjecture.

In other vacancy news, Robert Novak's column from Monday reports on leaks that AG "Oooh" Alberto Gonzalez is front-runner for Bush's first nomination to the Court. Gonzalez has a big fan in the President, but none among his conservative base and Novak makes it clear that Bush could appoint Gonzalez only at the cost of alienating conservatives. He goes on to write that the leaks might be a trial balloon or that "Gonzales's name has been floated by critics in order to shoot him down."

And somehow, those leaks all got to Robert Novak. Weird.