I happened on the Kennedy retirement story as I was flipping channels on the car radio.

I was so sure there would be no retirement announcement today. I think the Justices cling to the bench until Death calls for a vacancy. But no. Kennedy retires, and he retires in time for Trump to nominate someone who can be confirmed before the next election works its will on the Senate.

I was away from the blog — driving 100+ miles — but that did give me the opportunity to listen to the cable news channels (via satellite radio) far more than I'd ever put up with them if I were home and in a position to read and write. TV news is such as waste of time. Kennedy was the swing vote, and lawyers fine-tuned their arguments for him. I heard that over and over, with virtually no critical opinion about whether it was bad to have years of key Supreme Court decisions determined by the quirks of one human mind.

But that wasn't the main topic. The main topic — over and over again — was whether the Democratic Senators had any chance to delay the vote on the nominee until after the 2018 elections, which might give Democrats a majority in the Senate. I didn't hear anyone talking about whether a post-election vote on the nominee would help the Democratic Party win the Senate majority.

I think it would not. Voters tend to agree with the GOP's idea of what makes a good Justice — basically, judicial restraint. I don't think it will help Democrats in the elections to be saying give us the majority so we can block Trump's nominee (who will be a specific person, with great credentials, and an originalist, nonactivist judicial philosophy). They'll be better off if the vote has already happened and they can forefront other issues.

Some people may think it's so important to prevent Trump from nailing down a strong conservative majority on the Court, but Democrats would need to win the Senate majority to gain the power to thwart Trump's plan, and this issue hurts them. Anyway, that's something they can soothe themselves with if they fail to delay the confirmation vote, which they almost certainly will.

But maybe you're distracted by the question why did Althouse drive 100+ miles? I'm doing something that will disgust some of you! Actually, I'm doing 3 things, and nearly everyone will be disgusted by at least one of them.