I love Justice Thomas, but IMO, Scalia is THE MAN for the job.
This could be a brilliant political play, make Thomas the controversial nomination while the other two replacements sail through.
Scalia would make a fine chief justice but let's face it, and I'm being selfish here, Scalia is 67 years old. On the other hand, Thomas is just 54 (same age as GWB) and would have a good 20 years ahead of him, maybe more.
I would also like to see, as an earlier poster has pointed out, the sheer hypocrisy of the 'Rats pulling Anita Hill out of cold storage after shilling for serial sexual harrasser Bill Clinton for 10 years now.