Another vacancy?

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak wrote Thursday that Chief Justice William Rehnquist probably will resign later today, following close on the heels of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's resignation last week.

A second U.S. Supreme Court opening may give President Bush political cover with his social conservative base to preserve the Court's ideological balance by appointing an ultra-conservative to replace Rehnquist's vote and a more moderate conservative, perhaps longtime Bush friend Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, to replace O'Connor's vote. That, of course, assumes Bush wants to do any such thing, which is a rather big assumption.