Swallowing My Heart . . .

. . . and having to change my underwear.

The cause of my angst and incontinence, clicking to the Drudge Report this morning and finding a headline telling us that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was about to announce his retirement from the Court.

As it stands now, the Supreme Court is in a delicate balance. Justices Scalia (73), Thomas(61), Alito (59) and Roberts (55) make up the conservative bloc of Supreme Court. The liberal wing is made up of Stevens (89), Ginsburg (76), Breyer (71), and Obama's only appointee thus far, Sotomayor (55). Kennedy (73) is the swing vote who bounces like a ping pong ball between the two poles of the Supreme Court seemingly as the winds move him.

It would not be surprising to see Obama replace Ginsburg and Stevens during his first - and hopefully only - term in office. Stevens seems to be preparing for retirement and Justice Ginsburg is experiencing serious health problems. That would not disturb the existing balance on the Court. But if Obama replaces Kennedy or any of the "conservative" bloc, that is a different matter entirely. Given the degree to which the "liberal" wing has embraced judicial activism and the "living Constitution" theory, we could see an avalanche of activist decisions and newly minted Constitutional rights - along with a reduction in our antiquated contextual rights - for years, if not decades to come.

Now, via Hot Air, it turns out that the site which broke the story on the retirement of Chief Justice Roberts, Radar Online, has retracted the story and a spokesman for the Supreme Court has denied it. I will have much more to say on the topic of how I feel about Radar Online as soon as my heart returns to its correct anatomical position and resumes its normal rhythm - both of which will hopefully occur before I return from the laundromat.