This is not a prediction. I don’t know how to see into the future, and I’ve long lamented the besetting journalistic sin of confidently asserting what’s going to happen.
So call it a possibility — one that, should it develop, is going to make the political wars of the recent past look like models of bipartisan civility.
This possibility rests on two assumptions: First, that Republicans will make significant gains in the Senate this November; Second, that between January of next year and Election Day 2012, one of the five conservative Supreme Court justices will leave the court.
The first assumption is a probability; the second, nothing more than a hypothetical. If it becomes reality, start moving the furniture out of the room.
WATCH: JUSTICE DEPT DEFICIT AND PARTIES