On the crude politics of this: The Court is a key anti-Bush rallying cry of the Left, particularly the feminist groups. CNN just raised the Scalia-or-Thomas-could-become-chief-justice possibility–if Rehnquist cannot go back to work, or decides to retire soon and the Left is going to run with that and enthuse lefties with it. The question: Will the right be able to successfully counter potentially rabid Left-wing scare tactics? So far, the case against judicial activism has not been a loud, hard-core focus of the Bush campaign. An effective 527 might want to jump in here.