News The Impact of Alito's Nomination on Individual Rights and Government Power

[Art]

Seriously, what is Bush's problem? Can he take responsibility for anything?

I was actually pleasantly surprised to see Jeb Bush stand up and take responsibilty for the delay in distributing aid in Florida after H. Wilma

Bush Visits Florida as Brother Takes Blame for Slow Aid
Frustrated Residents Again Find Gas in Short Supply
By ERIK SCHELZIG, AP A day earlier, Gov. Jeb Bush took responsibility for frustrating relief delays in a state all too familiar with powerful storms. On Thursday, Bush again pleaded for patience and said supplies were shipped overnight to Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20051016090009990007&_mpc=news.10.1&cid=842

 

[Informal Logic]

I was actually pleasantly surprised to see Jeb Bush stand up and take responsibilty for the delay in distributing aid in Florida after H. Wilma
http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20051016090009990007&_mpc=news.10.1&cid=842

I guess since there are no hurricane threads to post in... I agree, but on the other hand it is the federal government who dropped the ball, again. Jeb is just covering for his brother, again.

 

[The Smoking Man]

Just a short question:

Given that Bush's own experience in the USA consisted of lording over some failed businesses, what did you think he imagined 'enough experience' constituted when he ... with no experience at all, can override the decisions of the supreme court by issuing pardons?

 

[BobG]

I liked former Republican Senator and UN Ambassador John Danforth's comments about the religious right on CNN News Night:

... they want a political judge. They want a judicial activist.

This business about judicial conservatism and somebody who decides the law, that's baloney. I mean, that's what they should want. That -- that is what the judge should be, somebody who interprets the law and not makes it. But forget about that. I mean, these people are just as activist as the People For the American Way and all those organizations.

and Bush's attempts to sell Miers as an evangelical Christian to the religious right:

... they should not have done that. And, under our Constitution, there cannot be a religious test for holding public office. And, certainly, you can't have a -- a Supreme Court justice operating as -- as the -- the person representing a particular religious faith.

But the fact that the White House felt that it had to do that -- it shouldn't have done it, but the fact that it -- that it thought that it had to is very, very telling. Why would they think that? Again, it's -- it's an effort to try to placate, I would say pander, to one slice of the American political spectrum.

Hopefully, Danforth's other comment about the religious right and Bush hits home for Republicans:

... it's very obvious that nobody can do enough to please them. The president certainly can't. All this business about appealing to the political base, pandering to the political base, telling the political base that they're wonderful, doing one thing after another to -- to try to make the political base happy, look what it got the president. They gave him a kick in the teeth.

I think Frist could identify with that last comment.

 

[pattylou]

Thanks Bob.

I like republicans like you. :) That's meant in a nice way, not in a snippy way. My parents were kinda like you. Actually, you remind me that there is moderation in both parties, and how great it would be to find that again.

The religious right scared the cr*p out of me, and it is good to see them losing credibility. I hope it keeps up. I hope they become a non-entity in politics. I know, there will always be religious issues, but this attitude of entitlement that "We gave you the presidency, you owe us, you're our tool" is nuts.

 

[BobG]

I like how Bush blames the withdrawal on belligerent democratic senators demanding White House documents.

But the more important issue..."Who next ?"

How about Maureen Mahoney. She's a female version of John Roberts. She'd go through the Senate with more than Roberts's 78 votes.

Or Bush could just give the religious right the brawl they want and nominate Janice Rogers Brown or Priscilla Owen. Except, if he had a weak nominee withdraw and then lost a brawl ...

 

[Human Being]

Whomever ultimately gets the SC seat... was going to get it all along. Everything happens for a reason in world politics, right? The global elite have unethical things to do, sovereign places to control, etc. Doesn't it seem to you that Miers was selected *precisely* so the WH issue would end up right where it has? The old-school term "cannon fodder" comes to mind. Perhaps with so many important world events transpiring, the SC is guaranteed to play a key role in the "future" of America? It strikes me as painfully obvious; the "team" now as a new "captain", and one more "free agent" is on the way. The USSC is yet another tool with which the global elite can "fleece" their "sheep". The Patriot Act, its sequel, or some other incarnation of its "principles" - eventually some legislation of that sort is going to appear before the SC...

Miers is a distraction, a patsy, a toy soldier - she was picked so that when "duty" called, she would withdraw. It has, and she has. In the whole scheme of events, Miers is but the closing "act" in the current "scene". Get your popcorn and soda, because the next "scene" is starting after a brief intermission.

 

[SOS2008]

I liked former Republican Senator and UN Ambassador John Danforth's comments about the religious right

by Danforth on CNN's NewsNight"
"...they want a political judge. They want a judicial activist.

This business about judicial conservatism and somebody who decides the law, that's baloney. I mean, that's what they should want."

This is what is disturbing -- The religious right wants an activist judge that will overturn Roe v Wade, and this has become very transparent to all.

Everything happens for a reason in world politics, right?

True that Bush, et al, have been a tight group with a well-scheduled and scripted strategy. However, I think this was a sincere screw up on their part. I don’t see any advantage to it, and if anything I think it has been damaging.

It has allowed people to see more clearly what Danforth said in the quote above. It has made the religious right look to be as unreasonable, unpatriotic, and even as ruthless as they really are. Now there is even less acceptability of a conservative judge with the credentials they would like (clear anti-abortion record).

Bush will need to find another Roberts--highly qualified with little paper trail, or a conservative judge on the DNC’s recommendation list. The religious right will gnash their teeth that there is no nuclear option—they’ve been waiting 20 years? Like a measly 20 years means anything in comparison to the health of our country over all and throughout time.

 

[Human Being]

Something I wrote at a different net haunt of mine...

Bush Picks Alito for Supreme Court - http://news.yahoo.com/s/...

G-Dub: "Judge Alito ... has more prior judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in more than 70 years"

Can you say, "shoe-in"? I wonder what this guy's deal is...
___

Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. - http://en.wikipedia.org/...

YALE. Shoulda known. Alito was put on the 3rd Circuit
Court of Appeals, in Philadelphia, by G-Dub's daddy...
Born April Fools Day, in '50. Is the golden joke on us?
Nominated on Halloween. Is he a trick or a treat? Heh.
Potentially the FIFTH Catholic on the Supreme Court...
creating the first majority-Catholic SCOTUS in history,
on PROTESTANT REFORMATION DAY! Should we laugh
or cry? YALE YALE YALE. It's all over the place lately...
___

{new text}

I think that Miers makes Alito "easier" to confirm. We'll see.
Incidentally, Alito might himself be but a means to an end;
Republicans are talking about the "nuclear option", and *if*
they in fact do change how filibusters work, we can safely
assume that effect was part of the plan all along. Hmmm...

 

[BobG]

Something I wrote at a different net haunt of mine...
Bush Picks Alito for Supreme Court - http://news.yahoo.com/s/...
G-Dub: "Judge Alito ... has more prior judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in more than 70 years"
Can you say, "shoe-in"? I wonder what this guy's deal is...
___
Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. - http://en.wikipedia.org/...
YALE. Shoulda known. Alito was put on the 3rd Circuit
Court of Appeals, in Philadelphia, by G-Dub's daddy...
Born April Fools Day, in '50. Is the golden joke on us?
Nominated on Halloween. Is he a trick or a treat? Heh.
Potentially the FIFTH Catholic on the Supreme Court...
creating the first majority-Catholic SCOTUS in history,
on PROTESTANT REFORMATION DAY! Should we laugh
or cry? YALE YALE YALE. It's all over the place lately...
___
{new text}
I think that Miers makes Alito "easier" to confirm. We'll see.
Incidentally, Alito might himself be but a means to an end;
Republicans are talking about the "nuclear option", and *if*
they in fact do change how filibusters work, we can safely
assume that effect was part of the plan all along. Hmmm...

I think the idea was to use the "nuclear option" early on the lower level judges to clear the way for Bush to nominate the 'ideal' religious right candidate without having to resort to the embarrassing tactics used in the Miers' nomination.

Turns out it doesn't matter. The religious right had enough clout to force Bush to go right ahead and fight both the filibuster battle and the nomination battle in one big war.

Alito is the best type of candidate the religious right could hope for under the current conditions. His rulings generally favor government over the individual. The key is which government Alito favors. Alito believes in states' rights over federal rights.

The bottom line is that Alito would be likley to defer abortion issues to the states and then consider any abortion laws passed by the individual states as having priority over individual rights. Of course, the drawback (for the religious right) is that Alito wouldn't be likely to overturn laws like Oregon's assisted suicide law either.

Aside from abortion/end-of-life, the impact will be the issues such as imminent domain (I don't think he'll put much emphasis on individual property rights), homeland security laws (individual liberties would come second to the nation's security), and civil rights (less concern with minorities, disabled, gender, etc). On the other hand, rulings giving the federal government less influence on local affairs would be a good thing.