Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader hopes that you all had a fine weekend (and for those of you in the United States - a long weekend). Your Maximum Leader spent his long weekend doing work around the Villainschloss and having some fun with the Villainous progeny. All in all it was a very productive and fun time.

When he wasn’t busy with other things, he was completely engrossed in a game of Rome: Total War. That is one hell of a great game.

Well, it was quite a weekend from a news perspective.

Chief Justice Rehnquist’s death was rather sudden. Sure he’d been suffering from cancer and seemed to be doing as well as you’d expect an 80 year old man to be doing. But his passing was still sudden. Your Maximum Leader happened to be watching CNN at the moment they cut in and made the announcement. Then he switched between CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC to see how long it would take for the other news networks to cut to the story. 8 minutes for MSNBC and 12 for Fox News. Your Maximum Leader wondered what the producers on MSNBC and Fox were thinking. It must have seemed like an eternity to them. Being scooped and all…

Your Maximum Leader was not surprised to hear the President naming Judge Roberts to the Chief Justice job. It makes sense really. Justice O’Connor has said she’d stay on until her replacement is confirmed by the Senate. And as much as your Maximum Leader would have liked to see Justice Scalia elevated, it just didn’t make sense from a political perspective.

Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure why the Senate decided to reschedule the Roberts confirmation to next week. Well, he does know why but it is a senseless reason. Nothing is going to change between now and then.

The President needs to name another replacement for Justice O’Connor very quickly. She’s done yeoman’s work and deserves retirement. Your Maximum Leader would hope that we know a name by the end of the week. Frankly, your Maximum Leader believes that the President would be advised to have yet another name ready too. There is no telling how lon Justice Stevens will last.

The New Orleans situation appears to have stabilized. Which is good. But the scope of the tragedy is far from being fully realized. Your Maximum Leader may try to comment more on this later today. He may also try and do a Rehnquist retrospective.

Do not expect any updates from your Maximum Leader tomorrow. He has business in DC all day and will not be able to blog. Perhaps one of his loyal ministers will be able to pick up the slack.

Carry on.