The events in New Orleans put a different type of pressure on him. He looks bad and the administration looks bad. But this is the time to move to the high ground in terms of the quality of an individual and public support.

When I told everyone I was closing down, everyone was really bummed, especially about the music events.

Rehnquist has been enormously influential in curbing, if not reversing, the Court's pro-criminal defendant rulings of the 1960s, in establishing state sovereignty decisions, and in questioning the scope of Congress's enumerated powers, for example, invalidating substantial portions of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act.

He has become good at figuring out how much he can get out of them without losing them.

No court is going to reach out with huge decisions when it is quite clearly in transition.

It's the 900-pound gorilla that's weightless. It's an empty symbol. It's almost as if the nominee is a hologram.