A bare-chested priest sat cross-legged in the temple of this farming village on a recent morning and recited all 1,008 names of Vishnu, the Hindu god, in the hope of soon receiving good news from the White House.
A junior priest sprinkled the idol, known as Balaji, with shredded tulsi leaves and rose-water. The subject of their prayers was Sri Srinivasan, an Indian-born judge on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia who is rumored to be a top contender for President Barack Obama to nominate to the Supreme Court.
In Washington, Srinivasan is known as a brilliant lawyer, and - what may be more important this year - so difficult to pigeonhole ideologically that his current appointment passed a bitterly divided Senate 97-0.
In Mela Thiruvenkatanathapuram, though, he is known as the grandson of a local schoolteacher and yarn merchant who drove an ox-cart and typically wore a traditional wraparound dhoti. Full story...
A junior priest sprinkled the idol, known as Balaji, with shredded tulsi leaves and rose-water. The subject of their prayers was Sri Srinivasan, an Indian-born judge on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia who is rumored to be a top contender for President Barack Obama to nominate to the Supreme Court.
In Washington, Srinivasan is known as a brilliant lawyer, and - what may be more important this year - so difficult to pigeonhole ideologically that his current appointment passed a bitterly divided Senate 97-0.
In Mela Thiruvenkatanathapuram, though, he is known as the grandson of a local schoolteacher and yarn merchant who drove an ox-cart and typically wore a traditional wraparound dhoti. Full story...
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