Briscoe v. Virginia, where the issue is, "If a state allows a prosecutor to introduce a certificate of a forensic laboratory analysis, without presenting the testimony of the analyst who prepared the certificate, does the state avoid violating the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment by providing that the accused has a right to call the analyst as his own witness?"

and US v. Comstock, where the issue is, "Whether Congress had the constitutional authority to enact 18 U.S.C. 4248, which authorizes court-ordered civil commitment by the federal government of (1) "sexually dangerous" persons who are already in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, but who are coming to the end of their federal prison sentences, and (2) "sexually dangerous" persons who are in the custody of the Attorney General because they have been found mentally incompetent to stand trial."

For senators, the ideal majority leader is more of a majority follower -- a hybrid of sounding board, shrink, concierge and wing man. The paradigm was LBJ's successor, the unprepossessing Mike Mansfield, the Montana Democrat who adopted a mellow, accommodating style that made him popular with a Senate weary of serving as Johnson's legislative mule train.

"What it takes to be elected leader, it isn't about the leadership skills to shepherd great legislation through," said a Democratic consultant who has worked on numerous Senate campaigns in the past two decades. "It's about who can make the other guys happy. It's about who knows what vote you can and can't take, who knows you have a fundraiser at 4 o'clock on Friday and need to get out of town."

So, all along we've been crying for a President and Majority Leader like LBJ, who would shake things up, and apparently, the folks on the Hill don't want that.

And, I didn't know this:

Since Johnson, no Democratic leader has represented a top-10 population state. Electing Durbin or Schumer -- either one -- would change the balance in a body that has given disproportionate influence to sparsely populated states like Nevada with headcounts smaller than those of Chicago or the five boroughs of New York City.

But here's what really made my hair stand up on end:

Neither Durbin nor Schumer -- roommates in a ratty Capitol Hill town house -- is overtly gunning for Reid's job, even in private, according to sources.

But few Senate insiders doubt they will compete if Reid is unseated. Other dark-horse contenders pop up in discussion -- including Sens. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Mark Warner of Virginia and Claire McCaskill of Missouri -- but only in the context of a deadlock or an unforeseen stumble by Durbin or Schumer.

I godd[@]mn near lost my nose. And I like it. I like breathing through it.