Posted on 05/02/2009 4:16:14 PM PDT by Graybeard58
Overall, "read my lips" was the first feckless President Bush's biggest mistake because of its unintended consequences on the culture, foreign policy and the national discourse. Among other things, it opened the door to the politics of personal destruction of Bill Clinton and all that entailed, which begat the Republican Revolution of 1994. The second feckless President Bush and moderate congressional Republicans ended up hijacking the revolution, and their borrow-and-spend policies breathed new life into long-ago-discredited liberalism. That led the Democrats back to the White House and gave them solid liberal majorities on Capitol Hill, including very soon a filibuster-proof Senate.
But as mistakes go, the first President Bush's appointment of "the surprise liberal," David Souter, to the Supreme Court in 1990 was a close second. A so-called moderate conservative — that should have been an entire color guard of red flags — Justice Souter was much more liberal than advertised, and more interested in media adulation than the rule of law. So as soon liberal journalists criticized him for not being "moderate enough" for their liking, he sprinted to join the court's left wing, and the mainstream media have had him on their pedestal ever since.
Justice Souter has announced he will retire in June. He will be remembered most for his deciding vote in a 1992 case invalidating a Pennsylvania law the high court said placed an "undue burden" on women seeking abortions. The ruling cemented Roe vs. Wade and led other courts to strike "burdens," undue or otherwise, in the laws of numerous states.
Conventional wisdom says Justice Souter's retirement will not change the court's dynamics; President Obama simply will swap one liberal for another. Indeed, the list of possible replacements is impressively loopy left. But the court already is to the left of ordinary Americans on many issues because it has four liberals who believe the Constitution says whatever they want or need it to say, and a fifth, Anthony Kennedy, who likewise enjoys liberal activism, only less frequently.
And Justice Souter's departure gives President Obama a chance to name "a real liberal" to the court, an internationalist, for example, who favors secularization of the public square, unrestricted abortion, same-sex marriage, human cloning, abolition of the death penalty, the redistribution of wealth, government micromanaging businesses and generally imposing European laws, values and socialism on America. People skittish about legislating from the bench need not apply.
If President Obama serves eight years, he could be asked to fill up to five court vacancies: liberal justices Souter, Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens and conservative Antonin Scalia. (You see, elections do matter.) But since filibuster-proof majorities are promised to no president and presidential honeymoons don't last forever, now is his best chance to appoint "a real liberal." The president has let it be known his first nominee will be a woman, preferably a minority. That should put Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw of the 9th U.S. Circus Court of Appeals, a Clinton appointee who is soft on crime and favors constitutional rights for illegal immigrants, among the early favorites. She or someone of her ilk would move the court even further from mainstream America, but would be a political and public-relations coup for a president who is hypersensitive to such things.
One final observation: It can't be a coincidence that Justice Souter waited until now to quit. One would have thought out of respect for the president who appointed him, he might have resigned during George W. Bush's administration. Instead, to his discredit, "the surprise liberal" waited until now to spring his final surprise, and thus remained disloyal to the end.
Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.
If you want on or off this list, let me know.
Surprise my foot. It was supposed to be another ‘surprise’ with Harriet Myers too.
Anyone who thinks that liberal Souter would have retired during Bush’s presidency is an idiot.
But was Souter a mistake for Bush?
No more utopian RINOs. We have certainly had enough of one-world, border-busting, utopian elitists. We need another Reagan who cares more about his country than himself.
God, what a fine man we lost when Ronaldus Magnus left us.
He would not even enter the Oval Office without his coat on, he had so much respect for the Office and love for his Constitutional Republic. I pray every day for another one before I die.....
“But as mistakes go, the first President Bush’s appointment of “the surprise liberal,” “
A liberal appointed a liberal. Big surprise.
Is it possible the press held President Bush to a higher standard? Forinstance, if President Obama had said he would end the war when he got into office and ... he DIDN'T - would the press endlessly remind him? "Gotcha" is only played with Republicans.
I’ve been a big critic of Harvard/Yale Republicans. Not only for their liberal Republicanism, but for being political doormats.
HW, and GW never got the fact that Dukakis and Gore were their( the Bush’s) best attraction.
When citizens were offered Perot, Republicans left HW and Clinton squeaked in.
Yes, but we have an entire generation of voters who were babies when Reagan was President and not even born when Carter made such a mess of things... ergo while those of us who remember revere Reagan when we speak of him to the new generation their eyes glaze over. We need to appreciate what we had with Reagan, but let him RIP and pray someone comes forward to excite this new generation the same way Reagan excited ours.
Unlike Reagan, HW didn’t want a fight. Heck, Margret Thatcher had to tell him to buck up. Then he called off killing off Saddam’s elite Republican Guard, and sold out the Kurds.
GW Bush never fired anyone. So long as you pressed your Chinos, you could hang around the WH for ever.
Too elite, too Episcopal, too nice.
Reminds me of Colin Powell!
One small silver lining to the present carnage is that it is exposing some particularly villainous scum. Loaded with people like that the party is not a big tent, it is a snake pit.
Hey I was born in ‘80 and I love Ronald Reagan, not all of us in the younger generations are non-thinking ‘nuts’!
Souter was Warren Rudman’s man. And Rudman was no more a conservative Republican than Earl Warren.
Let's not leave Jean Francois Kerry out of the mix.
There's a New York Times editorial today called, "A Spotty Response to the Flu Threat."
Subtitle: "The Republicans were wrong to eliminate $870 million for pandemic flu preparedness from the stimulus package."
It's always "Gotcha," even when the House, Senate and White House control all legislation, with or without Republican input.
I love The Gipper as much as anyone, but the biggest mistake he made, he didn’t make many but this one was a doozy, was to name Bush as his Veep. Had he not Bush would have faded into the sunset and GW might still be running the Rangers, or maybe Dallas’ MLS soccer club.
“Is it possible the press held President Bush to a higher standard?”
###
That is exactly what happened.
Same as it ever was.
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