MEGAN MCARDLE characterizes the confirmation battle: “The battle for control of the courts between Democrats who think they have a right to a pro-Roe judge, and Republicans who are salivating to get an originalist on the court, will now commence.”

Heck, it’s possible to be both. Here’s a not-so-encouraging prediction:

At this point, a confirmation battle will be supply-side driven–the interest groups have the money already, and they are going to spend it one way or the other. And then try to raise some more. And the politicians are going to try to raise money by pandering to these same players. No one is going to roll over on either side just because a particular nominee is thought to be “moderate” rather than “conservative”.

Maybe I’ll just go back to the beach . . . .

UPDATE: Reader Paul Carbone emails:

If a libertarian like yourself was nominated to the Supreme Court (something I’d certainly support) Do you think that would make it easier for he Democrats to swallow?

Maybe instead of going to the beach, you could go to the bench…

I think Bush could mess with the Democrats by appointing a libertarian like Eugene Volokh, Alex Kozinski, or Randy Barnett. I suspect that I’m a bit too far to the pro-choice end of the spectrum for the Bushies.

ANOTHER UPDATE: On the other hand, here’s someone who grudgingly suggests that I’d be an improvement over Sandra Day O’Connor, even though I’m pro-choice. Karl Rove is pretty much guaranteed not to agree.

THANKS TO THE MIRACLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE, you can read tomorrow’s Blog Mela today!

I’VE ALWAYS WONDERED ABOUT THIS, TOO.

JEFF ROSEN weighs in on potential nominees. His invocation of the “Constitution in Exile” stuff, however, seems, as always, a bit strained.

Meanwhile, Tom Maguire is asking for predictions in the comments. Best line so far: “But whoever it is, I’m going to claim it’s Juan Non-Volokh unmasked.”

UPDATE: The big winner in Maguire’s poll is Richard Posner. I’m okay with that!

NANCY PELOSI seems unclear on the concept where the Kelo decision is concerned.

WHO SHOULD REPLACE SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR? Reason has surveyed a lot of folks and posted their recommendations. Eugene Volokh is prominently featured, which certainly boosts the survey’s credibility.

Meanwhile, Bill Stuntz has thoughts on the courts and religion.

CONGRATULATIONS, BRO’:

Hard Rock Band Copper Takes the Gold
FARMINGDALE, NY, July 22, 2005—It’s happened. A winner has been selected for the historic J. D’Addario/Guitar.com, Fuse TV “We’re Listening” contest, which drew nearly 3,000 bands and 41,000 individual voters. Copper, out of Knoxville, Tennessee have been chosen as “The greatest band we’ve never heard” – until now.

Nearly 3,000 bands uploaded songs in MP3 format onto the We’re Listening web page with more than 41,000 votes cast to whittle the entrants down to a top 150. The voting closed April 15, and D’Addario’s panel of judges carefully listened to each Top 150 song, breaking the group down to a Top 20, which was then scrutinized once again. The judging was done by a panel of experts at D’Addario plus guest judges Jeff Stinco of Simple Plan, former Marilyn Manson guitarist John 5, Jane’s Addiction bassist Chris Chaney, former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson, producers Roy Z and Joe Beressi, and others. At the end of the long, intense judging process, Copper came out on top.

Copper, a melodic hard rock band, won the judges over with their song “Turn.” The band nets prizes ranging from an endorsement deal from J. D’Addario, a place in the next D’Addario television advertisement on Fuse TV and an appearance on Fuse TV’s live “Daily Download,” to full-page print ads, lots of J. D’Addario product, including gear from D’Addario, Evans drumheads, and Planet Waves cables and accessories, and more. Although Copper has not been signed to any label, they’ve been making a good name for themselves on their own, performing more than 200 shows a year in 23 cities.

This is my youngest brother, Brad, not the history-professor brother. You can hear the tune online here.

ORIN KERR has a lot of thoughts on what an O’Connor retirement means, but observes an important lacuna in the discussion: “Oddly, Justice O’Connor’s letter does not mention the all-important question: what is to happen to Sasha Volokh?”

Howard Bashman and SCOTUSblog are all over this, as you might imagine.

O’Connor’s, um, variable voting pattern means that if whoever replaces her is more consistent it will make a disproportionate difference. That also means that this fight is likely to be nastier than the fight over, say, a replacement for Rehnquist. Bench Memos has a lot on the politics involved.

And Mickey Kaus is pushing Robert Nagel for the vacancy. Good suggestion, but I doubt it’ll happen.

REPORTERS AS A PRIVILEGED CLASS? Some further thoughts at GlennReynolds.com.

SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR will retire.

BRIAN WILLIAMS is not distinguishing himself by comparing George Washington with hostage-taking Islamist terrorists.

IN THE MAIL: Amitai Etzioni’s How Patriotic is the Patriot Act?: Freedom Versus Security in the Age of Terrorism.

I’VE BEEN HOSTING MY PHOTOS over at ExposureManager (which is actually run by Armed Liberal of WindsofChange) and I’ve been very happy with their service. (Especially with the prints — I got a 20×30 print of this photo and it was razor sharp, with excellent color and tonality, and it was dirt cheap).

Now they’re offering a coupon special for InstaPundit readers. Just visit the Exposure Manager site and enter “Instapundit” as the coupon special on the signup page. You’ll get 25% off. Check it out if you’re interested.

IRAN AND HOSTAGES: Gateway Pundit has the latest on the bizarre history of Iran’s new President.

I think this story is overblown — if he weren’t a hostage-taker, he’d certainly be just as bad anyway — but it certainly illustrates that we’re still suffering the consequences of Jimmy Carter’s limp and inept middle eastern policy 25 years later.

THIS WEEK’S HISTORY CARNIVAL is up!

MYSTERY POLLSTER notices something interesting about the people advising Bush on war politics.

CHIPPING AWAY at the D.C. gun ban?

STEPHEN GREEN RECOMMENDS the latest issue of Parameters, the journal of the Army War College. In response to one article, Stephen observes:

Our Cold War containment policy wasn’t easily arrived at, and went through several permutations – some good, some bad – through 40-plus years. We’re still in the early stages of this new war – and we’ll need time for a good policy to cohere. (NOTE: When I say “early stages,” I mean that this Terror War is likely to last as long, if not longer, than the Cold War. If the Cold War began in 1948 and the Terror War began in 2001, then today we’re only up to the equivalent of 1951. By that measure, we’re doing much better at this early stage than we were doing back then.)

Well, that’s encouraging.

MELANIE PHILLIPS WRITES on 9/11 and the Big Lie.

THOUGHTS ON THE POLITICAL FUTURE and its enemies. Meanwhile, John Hinderaker writes about short memories.

YOU CAN SEE VIDEO OF TalkLeft’s Jeralyn Merritt on MSNBC today, courtesy of Ian Schwartz.

HOW TO HELP THE TROOPS AND THEIR FAMILIES: the United Warrior Survivor Foundation is “”dedicated to the surviving spouses of Special Operations military personnel killed in the line of duty since 9/11. UWSF offers Survivor Transition Assistance to surviving spouses, along with educational counseling, financial guidance, investment planning, and other programs.”

SoldiersAngels is worth a look, too. (Both via Hugh Hewitt).

INSTAPUNDIT: No longer a blog, but an online magazine published by Glenn Reynolds! From Me-Zines to blogs and back to Me-Zines — a Great Circle of nomenclature.

GEORGE LAKOFF: Questioning the Democrats’ patriotism?

NORM GERAS LOOKS AT PRISON CONDITIONS IN ZIMBABWE: They sound quite bad.