One note. I don’t mean to sound like I’m not glad …

One note. I don’t mean to sound like I’m not glad that we won. I’m happy to see Tom Daschle on the way out as Majority Leader, but I’m also not putting much stock in our new leadership.

Adam, I’m not saying that now that we’ve won the election, we should trust the Party Leadership in the House and Senate (or the White House) in an unwitting way. Indeed, my level of trust in the present organisation of the federal government does not dramatically increase because the Republicans are in power, especially with all the “homeland security” talk. However, the difference between you and I is this: While on a prophetic scale I do not expect a Republican victory to dramatically alter world events, I am optimistic that it may point to a positive trend toward conservatism on the part of the regular American electorate (that is, those who care to vote in every election) toward conservatism. I have learned that pessimism never gets you anywhere in politics, it is best to think positive, even if you can’t always trust certain people to do the right thing.

MY SUPREME COURT WISH LIST

Chief Justice WILLIAM HOBBES REHNQUIST will soon retire, so the question I will deal with here will not be who his replacement WILL be, but who the ideal replacement OUGHT to be.

In my ideal world, Justice CLERENCE THOMAS would replace REHNQUIST as Chief Justice. ANTONIN SCALIA would also make a good Chief Justice, but even I, the optimist, see an impossible confirmation fight in that case. To fill THOMAS’ old seat as Associate Justice, my ideal candidate would be none other than the Prosecutor himself, KENNETH STARR.

If RUTH BADER GINSBURG retires as expected, perhaps Judge THOMAS PICKERING could fill her old seat!