Voters to Select New Chief Justice?

Let's not doubt the possibility of a medical miracle, but the prognosis for Chief Justice William Rehnquist sounds grim. A round of chemotherapy for his thyroid cancer nixed his planned return to the Supreme Court today. From a distance one cancer expert tells Bloomberg this is not a good sign:

The announcement suggests that Rehnquist is suffering from anaplastic thyroid cancer, a rare and aggressive form of the disease, said Herman Kattlove, an oncologist and medical editor for the American Cancer Society. The anaplastic variety is the only type of thyroid cancer that is treated with chemotherapy.

"It's not treatable by surgery, only by chemotherapy and radiation," said Kattlove in a telephone interview. "It's rarely, if ever, curable, and most patients die within a few months."

As if this election needed another wild card thrown into the mix.