WH Aides: Bush Considers Picking Roberts as Chief Justice

It's no longer just a theory, folks. According to today's Washington Post, Bush is "considering a plan to install Roberts as chief justice rather than as an associate justice replacing Sandra Day O'Connor, senior administration officials said."

And, as we all know, when senior administration officials say this, it's pretty much done. As the article states, "the switch would be unprecedented in modern times."

From the article: "The death of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist just days before Senate confirmation hearings for John G. Roberts Jr. set off a scramble in Washington yesterday and presented President Bush a historic opportunity to put his stamp on the Supreme Court for decades to come...

If the president does not opt for that course, officials said, he will return to the list of potential candidates he scrutinized in picking Roberts in July. Among those at the top of such a list would be his close friend Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales; his former deputy attorney general, Larry D. Thompson; and a handful of federal appeals judges, including Edith Hollan Jones, Edith Brown Clement, J. Harvie Wilkinson III, J. Michael Luttig, Emilio M. Garza and Priscilla R. Owen."

This is not good, folks.