"I feel sorry for the poor devil who will be nominated," said former Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.), referring to anyone chosen to succeed Rehnquist. Danforth shepherded the nomination of Clarence Thomas through the Senate in 1991 and called it "the worst thing I ever lived through. Just awful."When historians trace the origins of how Supreme Court nominations became a flash point of culture wars and how brutal, bare-knuckle politics came to dominate the confirmation process, their search will lead them to Missouri. In the steamy trough of the Mississippi River valley, the seeds of the current culture wars were sown--court...