Article III Groupie tried; she really did. But it looks like her effort was too little, too late. One woman -- even a woman armed with a fabulous blog and a killer shoe collection -- is simply no match for an entire network of ruthless Luttigators, working overtime to send their former boss to One First Street (in between writing cease-and-desist letters to The Onion). The underdog might win in the movies, but this is real life.
Earlier today, A3G made her strongest pitch as to why President Bush should nominate Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr., to the Supreme Court, instead of Judge J. Michael Luttig, the boringly obvious, inside-the-Beltway favorite. But despite A3G's best efforts, and a promising early lead for the widely admired Sam Alito, it looks like the tide has turned -- as A3G knew it would. Going into the weekend, Judge Luttig now has the upper hand. Expect a JML coronation early next week.
Gavel bangs for the Hugh Hewitt and Confirm Them links: Reasoned Audacity, by Charmaine Yoest. Yoest which also offers -- in the left-hand column of her blog -- a poll inviting readers to vote on who should be the next SCOTUS nominee. Check it out!
The current leader in Yoest's poll, by a hefty margin? No surprise here: Judge Janice Rogers Brown, that scrumptious judicial diva!
Update: A3G realizes that Judge Alito is leading the field right now over at TradeSports, as noted over at Financial Rounds. But she has her doubts concerning the reliability of TradeSports when it comes to predicting SCOTUS nominees more than a few hours in advance. When the rumor mill was churning over Edith Brown Clement, her stock was way up at TradeSports. Then, when the news of John Roberts's nomination leaked shortly before the press conference, her stock plummeted, and his skyrocketed. For fairly comprehensive analysis of TradeSports and SCOTUS nominees, check out this VC post and the many related posts referenced therein.
No. No. No. A3G. How many times do I have to say it?
Pryor! Pryor! Pryor! Pryor!
Feddie needs to become one of the elect. :)
Posted by: Feddie | October 28, 2005 at 11:15 PM
Many of you might not be aware of the tradesports.org site. It's a "prediction market" where people trade contracts based on various events occurring. The have a market currently going on who will be the next nominee. At present, the market has Alito in the lead, with a roughly 30% chance of being the niminee, with Luttig and Williams in 2nd and third with (respectively) 20% and 11% (as of 7:43 p.m. friday.
I've put a post up at my blog on prediction markets for those who are unfamiliar. They're pretty interesting mechanisms for agregating dispersed information - not perfect, but better than a lot of the alternatives.
The prediction markets post is at financialrounds.blogspot.com in case you're interested.
Posted by: The Unknown Professor | October 28, 2005 at 07:55 PM