An aspect of diversity which no one has yet mentioned in connection with Obama's choice for his first SCOTUS nomination is religion. David Souter is an Episcopalian. If he were replaced by Sotomayor, who is the odds on favorite, we would be adding a sixth Catholic to the Court, leaving Justice Stevens as the lone Protestant. Personally, I don't think that is very healthy.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is my suggestion. She is an attorney who is a liberal, but was also the district attorney for Hennepin County for 12 years, and the president of the Minnesota District Attorneys Association. She also went to Yale for her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude. She got her JD at Obama's very own University of Chicago. And, she is a Congregationalist. I really do think she should be seriously considered.

The fact that her confirmation would place additional pressure on Governor Pawlenty to resolve the Franken/Coleman election is also, I won't deny it, a delightful prospect. The appellate court heard the case and made its determination for Franken in late April, and the Minnesota Supreme Court announced they were going to skip over the entire month of May and not hear the case, even, until June 1. They are plainly in no hurry to get the case heard or to see Minnesota represented in the US Senate by the person every panel which has examined it so far has said is the peoples' choice--Al Franken. And how long are they going to "deliberate" after the June 1 hearing? Until Labor Day? Columbus Day? Perhaps Thanksgiving? Or even later? How long can they delay? Perhaps a full year? Perhaps even more?