Wednesday, July 6, 2005
The Supreme Court Circus Is Coming To Town
The Supreme Court bans television cameras from its public sessions on the ground that it does not want its proceedings to become a “circus.” Whether the august Court likes it or not, the struggle over the replacement to be nominated for retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor will be a circus beyond the wildest dreams of American showman P.T. Barnum.
Barnum is best remembered for supposedly saying, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” The biggest immediate political question raised by the forthcoming hearings is which political party will play the role of the sucker.
Thomas Lifson: The financing of campaigns for and against the confirmation of Supreme Court appointees has become a virtual industry. An estimated $100 million dollars will be spent by left wing activist groups seeking to critique, besmirch, and discredit any Bush appointee, and by their conservative opponents seeking to burnish, defend, and support the nominee.
The public has repeatedly shown that it doesn’t like it when either party becomes shrill or nasty or is perceived to be breaking the implicit rules of conduct.
This means that the Democrats must be wary of being seen as a caricature, reflexively opposing any Bush nominee. But they have no choice. This is exactly what they must do, to keep their fundraising base from turning against them with a vengeance.
The "progressive" core well understands that its only hope of maintaining a permissive abortion regime, driving religion out of the public square, and maintaining a robust social engineering role for the government is via Supreme Court fiat. Any move to turn the Court toward enforcing the actual wording of the Constitution threatens their last redoubt of government power. Like cornered rats, they will lash out with all their force at any provocation.
So the Democrats are being forced onto a path which will alienate the swing voters it needs to win presidential elections and Senate seats in those states not firmly in the blue camp. The only question is whether or not the Republicans, long called Stupid Party for their lack of political wiles, will have the wit to get out of their way.
Because the Democrats will attack anyone he sends to them, there is no advantage to the President attempting to placate the Democrats with a moderate nominee. Instead, he should search for someone of utter integrity and of a sound conservative judicial philosophy. It is all the better if the Democrats are driven to paroxysms of strident outrage. They would be bathing themselves in voter repellant.
Now that’s one circus I don’t want to miss.
The Supreme Court bans television cameras from its public sessions on the ground that it does not want its proceedings to become a “circus.” Whether the august Court likes it or not, the struggle over the replacement to be nominated for retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor will be a circus beyond the wildest dreams of American showman P.T. Barnum.
Barnum is best remembered for supposedly saying, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” The biggest immediate political question raised by the forthcoming hearings is which political party will play the role of the sucker.
Thomas Lifson: The financing of campaigns for and against the confirmation of Supreme Court appointees has become a virtual industry. An estimated $100 million dollars will be spent by left wing activist groups seeking to critique, besmirch, and discredit any Bush appointee, and by their conservative opponents seeking to burnish, defend, and support the nominee.
The public has repeatedly shown that it doesn’t like it when either party becomes shrill or nasty or is perceived to be breaking the implicit rules of conduct.
This means that the Democrats must be wary of being seen as a caricature, reflexively opposing any Bush nominee. But they have no choice. This is exactly what they must do, to keep their fundraising base from turning against them with a vengeance.
The "progressive" core well understands that its only hope of maintaining a permissive abortion regime, driving religion out of the public square, and maintaining a robust social engineering role for the government is via Supreme Court fiat. Any move to turn the Court toward enforcing the actual wording of the Constitution threatens their last redoubt of government power. Like cornered rats, they will lash out with all their force at any provocation.
So the Democrats are being forced onto a path which will alienate the swing voters it needs to win presidential elections and Senate seats in those states not firmly in the blue camp. The only question is whether or not the Republicans, long called Stupid Party for their lack of political wiles, will have the wit to get out of their way.
Because the Democrats will attack anyone he sends to them, there is no advantage to the President attempting to placate the Democrats with a moderate nominee. Instead, he should search for someone of utter integrity and of a sound conservative judicial philosophy. It is all the better if the Democrats are driven to paroxysms of strident outrage. They would be bathing themselves in voter repellant.
Now that’s one circus I don’t want to miss.
