Eyeing SCOTUS

Donklephant has the goods via First Read:

* Diane Wood - 7th Circuit
* Merrick Garland - DC Circuit Court of Appeals
* Sonia Sotomayor - 2nd Circuit
* Elena Kagan - Solicitor General
* Jennifer Granholm - Michigan Governor
* Janet Napolitano - Homeland Security Secretary

Narrowing it down, it leaves us with . . . .

Personally, I think Napolitano won’t be picked because vacating the Homeland Security spot would give Republicans a very easy way to criticize Obama on national defense.

So my bet is on Kagan because of her background at Harvard law and her affiliation with the University of Chicago. Also, the administration has been hinting that this person would come from a non-traditional avenue, and while that might be a head fake, I think it would rule out Wood.

All I know is this will be a slow and deliberate process. Now rush, no hurry!

Flash

MORE: WaPo points out President Obama's desire for empathy in a justice:

After Souter's plans to retire became public, Obama spoke of empathy as "an essential ingredient for arriving at just decisions and outcomes." He said he would look for someone "who understands that justice isn't about some abstract legal theory."

"It is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people's lives -- whether they can make a living and care for their families, whether they feel safe in their homes and welcome in their communities."

Obama addressed empathy in his second book, "The Audacity of Hope," placing the capacity to understand others "at the heart of my moral code." To be able to empathize with people richer and poorer, more liberal and more conservative, is to be "forced beyond our limited vision," he wrote.