If the rumors are true, it’s Supreme Court Justice nomination week (maybe even “day”). I don’t have a good feeling about this, but I’ll be happy to be pleasantly surprised.

Mr. Obama talked with his legal team on Monday, and White House aides said an announcement could come as early as Tuesday. Coming so early in his tenure, before he establishes a record of lower court nominations, the decision could be an important indicator of how he will use his judicial appointment power.

I sincerely hope he’s not viewing it this way, or at least that this isn’t the thought that’s uppermost in his mind. If it is, that virtually guarantees the kind of pick that will disappoint even the realists on the left who are not expecting anything close to “a full-throated, unapologetic liberal torchbearer to counter conservatives like Justice Scalia.”

Personally, I would like to see him send up a full-throated, unapologetic liberal torchbearer as his first choice. First, to force all those Republicans — like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, for example — who bitterly opposed judicial filibusters in the time of Bush on principle, but who are now cheerfully threatening to filibuster Obama’s nominee if he or she is too liberal, in the uncomfortable position of actually committing Naked Co-ed Political Hypocrisy (instead of merely threatening to). Secondly, after the first nominee has been filibustered, Obama should be able to get away with a slightly more liberal choice the second time around. Assuming, of course, that he does want a more liberal candidate than Republicans (and pseudo-Democrats, like Ben Nelson) are likely to allow him to get away with the first time around.

*** Update, 7:11 a.m. ***

Well, at least he seems to be picking someone who Republicans will be sure to bitterly oppose.

Here’s an interesting little tidbit about Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court candidacy, from an NYT article that’s almost two weeks old. Republican obstructionism of her candidacy started twelve years ago!

In 1997, Republican senators held up her nomination by President Bill Clinton to the appeals court for more than a year, because they believed that as a Hispanic appellate judge she would be a formidable candidate for the Supreme Court.