Washington Post columnist and Fox News pundit Marc Thiessen, speaking with Megan Kelly last night, raised an excellent point regarding the nomination of a Supreme Court justice.  Noting that the Republicans appear to be taking a firm stand against allowing the lame-duck president to appoint a replacement for recently deceased Justice Antonin Scalia, Thiessen asked the very cogent question, "Who could possibly want to be that nominee?"  He noted that whoever it might be has already been put on notice that it is, in effect, a judicial suicide mission and likened that person to a kamikaze pilot.  As soon as Thiessen spoke, I realized he had neatly and accurately encapsulated the situation facing the White House right now into two words: kamikaze mission.

Where are they ever going to find a prominent, accomplished jurist dumb enough to fly into all that waiting senatorial flak, knowing that the mission is a fruitless career-ender?  Sure, Obama may fancy himself imperial, but the emperor is clearly bare-butt behind the bench on this one.  No eminent jurists who have spent their professional lives preparing themselves for the High Command of the judicial profession want to step forward and volunteer to have that lifetime of preparation blown to smithereens in a clearly unwinnable battle, merely to uphold the imperial legacy for the history books.

On the other hand, if Obama puts forward a sacrificial and minimally qualified candidate who might be willing to don the silk headscarf of sacrifice and volunteer to go down in flames for fifteen minutes of footnote fame, then the Republicans can point self-righteously to those absent qualifications as sufficient reason for grimly blowing the ambitious aspirant from the skies of fleeting legal glory.

From a political history perspective, Thiessen nailed it; it's a kamikaze mission, and Barry will have to find a fool to fly it.