New article at Tech Central Station declares Democrats' willingness to smoothly confirm Scalia as chief because they are afraid of allowing a Republican president the opportunity to appoint the first black chief justice (and a mightily conservative one, at that).
If only it were that simple.
Sen. Harry Reid's comments about the brilliance of Scalia's mind came with an important caveat. Scalia reportedly had ethical problems. If folks are naive enough to think that the Dems are going to give Scalia a pass would be in for a big surprise if he were nominated for chief. They attack Thomas as a judicial nimrod and puppet to downplay his qualifications (and subtlely imply he is an affirmative action pick) to be chief. They then overtly praise Scalia's qualifications and make themselves look like they are really concerned about qualified candidates, and are not out to put a litmus test on conservative nominees, thus permanently immunizing themselves with the "we supported Scalia" trope. However, once Scalia gets nominated, it just so happens that they stumble all over Scalia's purported ethical violations and voila! there is no way in good conscience they could make a man who goes on a duck hunting trip with his buddies the chief justice.
You heard it here first.