Justice Hillary

Ann Althouse links to this Washington Post column, touting Hillary Clinton as President Obama's first Supreme Court nominee:

...there is another way to foster party unity without forcing a political marriage.

It's likely that the next president will face at least one Supreme Court vacancy. Obama should promise Hillary Clinton, now, that if he wins in November, the vacancy will be hers, making her first on a list of one.

Althouse is...well, skeptical. She writes:

His notion that Hillary Clinton belongs on the Supreme Court is just: Everybody seems to think she's pretty smart. And it doesn't even matter that she has no judicial experience and has never done anything to indicate that she is any sort of a legal scholar or has anything like a judicial temperament.

And:

(Clinton supporters would) think that Obama shouldn't be trusted with the responsibility of appointing federal judges.

To which I say: Ann! Quit trying to talk him out of it!

Because this is a great idea.

Just imagine the circus: a politically-motivated payoff to an ambitious and viciously partisan former rival, so politically charged she’s radioactive, who isn’t even close to being the best-qualified choice?

Americans hate that kind of thing. And they’ll punish the party that does it. So yes, please, please, future President Obama. Please nominate Clinton to the Supreme Court.

He won't, of course. And she'd never accept, even if he offered. There's way more power and glory in the Senate.

Or...maybe she'd accept the offer under the table (they could never make this deal in public), then forcefully admonish President Obama for trying to buy her after he nominates her!

I love this idea.