Is this (from the June '05 issue of The American Enterprise magazine) a hint of who the next two justices of the Supreme Court will be?

The Edith Jones interview sure sounds like notes for a confirmation hearing, prepared by people who've done message-crafting for Reagan and/or one or both Bushes; it doesn't exactly sound like an actual human being talking off the cuff:

TAE: Tell us a little bit about your upbringing.
 
JONES: I grew up in San Antonio in the 1950s and '60s. My dad eventually graduated from Yale Medical School, but started life as a cowboy in south Texas. My mother is from Pennsylvania and studied nursing at Yale. My father worked 70 hours a week until he retired, and my mother reared the five of us, of whom I'm the oldest....
 
TAE: Moral values are important to you. What do you think is the best way to teach them to children?
 
JONES: I think religion is the best way. If you are responsible to God, no matter what religion you are in, you learn moral standards that transcend the dictates of the law. You show your kids fundamentally what is right or wrong....
 
TAE: Should tort reform help curb frivolous lawsuits?
 
JONES: I think that is a very important goal. There was a recent $900 judgment against two teenagers in a Colorado suburb who baked cookies and dropped them off on the doorsteps of their neighbors at night out of sheer kindness. One of the neighbors claimed she got so frightened that there were intruders at her door that she had to go to the hospital the next day. And she sued these girls. Now, if that's not a sign of a system in distress, I don't know what is.... 

(I'm predicting that Jones will replace O'Connor, as I said a couple of days ago, in large part because she's pleased the base by denouncing Roe.)

The second half of the article is an interview with Ted Olson, who showed up in the crystal ball of Talk Left's Jeralyn Merritt back in May, when Rehnquist seemed ready to retire.

Whatever you or I may think when we hear Olson's name, remember -- if you weren't a political maven you wouldn't know anything about him, and the first thing you'd learn is that his wife died on 9/11. Hearing this, you might wipe away a tear.

In the interview, Olson is asked about it:

TAE: You suffered a great personal loss on 9/11--the death of your wife Barbara on one of the commandeered planes. That must have given you a unique perspective within the administration. Would you feel comfortable discussing that a little bit?
 
OLSON: I had a very, very deep loss, and it's impossible really to describe how that affects your thought process. But you can't be a human being and not be significantly altered. Let me say that I'm glad I was able to be a part of the administration that conducted the war against the people who caused those terrible events on September 11.

Whether this makes you wipe away another tear depends, I guess, on whether you thought 9/11 was an appalling act of murderous depravity or a glorious opportunity for God's Chosen President to strap on the codpiece and show the world what he's made of. And I guess that's America's divide in a nutshell.