The next Supreme Court battle

While much of Washington is gripped with determining how good or evil John Roberts actually is, this clipmonkey is taking a few moments to look at another man who we'll be hearing a lot more about soon- Antonin Scalia, Bush's likely nominee for chief justice when Rehnquist steps down.

Justice Scalia is an interesting character. He is the father of nine children. He's pals with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He goes hunting with Dick Cheney. He doesn't like reporters. Like so many others in the Republican establishment, he has a son who feeds at the business-government trough. Most intriguing of all, though, he fancies himself a higher authority on the death penalty than the recently departed Pope John Paul II.

From Catholic News Service:

In public appearances Scalia not only has defended the death penalty as constitutionally solid, but he has argued that the church doctrine approving of capital punishment dating to St. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century and St. Augustine in the fourth century still prevails. He has said that more recent teachings of Pope John Paul II are not obligatory because they were not spoken ex cathedra, Latin for from the chair, meaning the pope intended them to be accepted as infallible teachings of the church.

Talk about a God complex......