Why Not Quit?

I'll post more soon about Chief Justice Rehnquist and his legacy on the court, and in particular his activist tendencies (no matter what conservatives say, Rehnquist was just as result-orientated as conservatives have criticized Brennan for being), but I'm a little bit puzzled about why he chose to stay on after this term. Was it a case of stubborness in the face of death? Clearly, he was very sick and deteroriated quickly since the end of June. Perhaps, after the death of his wife in 1991, the court was his life and he just didn't want to leave.

However, Rehnquist was known above all as prizing the smooth administration of the court. It seems to me that his staying on despite his very poor health is contradictory to that position. Furthermore, Rehnquist was on the court in 1975, when Justice Douglas refused to resign after having a serious stroke and had to deal with the messy aftermath, which included refusing to count Douglas' vote in 5-4 cases, until finally someone convinced Douglas to quit. (Outlined in great detail in Bob Woodward's fantastic book on the Supreme Court, "The Brethren"). Part of Douglas' resistance to resign lay in the fact that the President who would appoint his successor, Gerald Ford, had baselessly attempted to have Douglas impeached when Ford served in the House.

But Rehnquist had no such issues, as the man he appointed in 2000 was reelected with only Diebold's help in 2004. So I'm left wondering why he chose to stay on.
- posted by Joshua @ 9:11 PM