Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Nice Court You Have There, It Would Be A Shame If Something Happened To It
PJmedia.com ^ | 3/29/2012 | Richard Fernandez

Posted on 04/03/2012 3:39:33 AM PDT by servo1969

The Talking Points Memo headline reads: “Dems Warn Of ‘Grave Damage’ To SCOTUS If ‘Obamacare’ Is Struck Down.” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D), a former attorney general of Connecticut, pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court would damage itself if it did something so ridiculous as find Obamacare unconstitutional:

"The court commands no armies, it has no money; it depends for its power on its credibility. The only reason people obey it is because it has that credibility. And the court risks grave damage if it strikes down a statute of this magnitude and importance, and stretches so dramatically and drastically to do it."

Blumenthal was clearly engaged in “begging the question”:

"A type of logical fallacy in which a proposition is made that uses its own premise as proof of the proposition. In other words, it is a statement that refers to its own assertion to prove the assertion."

By saying Obamacare is so self-evidently wonderful and legitimate that only someone crazy would disagree with it, Blumenthal makes you wonder why this matter is even before the Court in the first place. For the answer to that question, see “begging the question.”

What is less clear is whether Blumenthal, in reminding the court that the executive branch had the monopoly on physical power, was not engaged in a kind of subtle menace. After all, the Court’s power is not based on “credibility.” It is based on power vested in it by the Constitution. What would the administration say if someone argued that the president’s authority was based on “credibility” rather than his legal power as chief executive?

By saying Obamacare is so self-evidently wonderful and legitimate that only someone crazy would disagree with it, Blumenthal makes you wonder why this matter is even before the Court in the first place. For the answer to that question, see “begging the question.”

What is less clear is whether Blumenthal, in reminding the court that the executive branch had the monopoly on physical power, was not engaged in a kind of subtle menace. After all, the Court’s power is not based on “credibility.” It is based on power vested in it by the Constitution. What would the administration say if someone argued that the president’s authority was based on “credibility” rather than his legal power as chief executive?

So unworthy a sentiment as intimidation would not occur to Blumenthal any more than it would to Winston Churchill, who when speaking to Stalin in 1944, trying to persuade the Generalissimo to give Poland a break after the war, drew from him one of the bon mots of the 20th century.

Churchill was telling Stalin:

"That is why I attach such paramount importance to good neighborly relations between a restored Poland and the Soviet Union. It was for the freedom and independence of Poland that Britain went into this war. The British feel a sense of moral responsibility to the Polish people, to their spiritual values. It is also important that Poland is a Catholic country. We cannot allow internal developments there to complicate our relations with the Vatican …"

Then:

"“How many divisions does the Pope of Rome have?” Stalin asked, suddenly interrupting Churchill’s line of reasoning.

Churchill stopped short. He had not expected such a question. After all, he was speaking about the moral influence of the Pope, not only in Poland, but, also, throughout the world. Once again, Stalin reaffirmed that he only respected force, and brought Churchill back down to Earth from the nebulous heavens."

You had to hand it to old Uncle Joe: cut to the chase. All business, all the time. But maybe the real question the Obama administration is asking itself now is not: “How many divisions has the Supreme Court?” Rather, it could be: “How much of this Obamacare money have we already promised to the boys? And what the hell are we going to do if it doesn’t go through?”

Administrations which are not very particular about spending money from the future in the today are probably the improvident sorts who hire people in advance.

Perhaps one answer to Blumenthal’s observation is to flip the statement:

"An administration that can’t come up with the vig can lose an awful lot of support from the base real quick. The only reason people obey it is because they get a check in a brown envelope. And the administration risks grave damage if a promise of that magnitude and importance doesn’t come off, because people have already made down payments on cars and vacations in expectation of that commitment."

And by the way, the Soviet Union is gone, but there’s still a Poland. And last I heard, there was still a pope.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: blumenthal; chicagoway; healthcare; marxistcoup; obama; obamacare; scotus; stalin
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last

1 posted on 04/03/2012 3:39:37 AM PDT by servo1969
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: servo1969

The second I read this a-hole’s name - Sen Richard Blumenthal (D), a former attorney general of Connecticut - I knew where this US Constitution-baiting-lib was going. POS.


2 posted on 04/03/2012 3:45:43 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (I'd vote for a "orange juice can", before 0bummer&HisRegimeFromHell, gets another 4yrs. Can-> later.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: servo1969
It's breath-taking that Obama and the left are actually engaged in threatening the Supreme Court of the United States.
They can deny all they want, but I hope the (majority of) Supremes rock their world.
3 posted on 04/03/2012 3:48:02 AM PDT by grobdriver
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: servo1969

The Left continues to signal a coming coup. Will conservative justices have an “accident” or be assassinated outright?


4 posted on 04/03/2012 3:48:24 AM PDT by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: servo1969
The court commands no armies, it has no money; it depends for its power on its credibility. The only reason people obey it is because it has that credibility. And the court risks grave damage if it strikes down a statute of this magnitude and importance, and stretches so dramatically and drastically to do it."

That reminds me of what Uncle Joe Stalin said about the Pope and the Vatican many years ago. Kinda made me take notice.

5 posted on 04/03/2012 3:48:57 AM PDT by YankeeReb
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: servo1969
Did Kagan inform Obama the vote Friday?

How did Obama get a law license?

All Law Schools teach within months of Madision V. Marbury the first semster

Where we have three equal Branches of Government and the Supreme Court one job is the judge the constitutional of laws passed and signed by the President. ( No such law was ever passed Roe V. Wade)

6 posted on 04/03/2012 3:49:10 AM PDT by scooby321 (h tones)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: servo1969

So now the narrative is that, if a law is ‘big and important’, it’s automatically constitutional?

Interesting concept...


7 posted on 04/03/2012 3:49:25 AM PDT by DJ Frisat ((optional, printed after my name on post))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: servo1969

“How many divisions has the Supreme Court?”

If the lib-dems try anything with them, they just might find out how many Real Americans would take-up arms in defense of the SCOTUS. Just saying.


8 posted on 04/03/2012 3:50:25 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (I'd vote for a "orange juice can", before 0bummer&HisRegimeFromHell, gets another 4yrs. Can-> later.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: YankeeReb

Damn... I just saw the quote didn’t even finish the article, I should have read further ...my bad.


9 posted on 04/03/2012 3:51:30 AM PDT by YankeeReb
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: carriage_hill

Richard Blumenthal, the scumbag who was eviscerated by marshmallow Glenn Beck a few years back for unconstitutional attacks on banks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q8LJKb58f5s

Blumenthal looked like he was going to cry.


10 posted on 04/03/2012 3:53:04 AM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: servo1969

Hear that demented screaming off in the distance?

Chief Justice Roberts just woke up with a decapitated horse head in his bed.


11 posted on 04/03/2012 3:56:41 AM PDT by Happy Rain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SampleMan

And will the voting public find the courage to march, with pitch forks in hand, up to the castle to throw out the bum-king?


12 posted on 04/03/2012 4:00:43 AM PDT by dps.inspect (the system is rigged...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

WOW, Beck’s ON FIRE in that exchange! I don’t ever remember seeing/hearing anything like that from him, in the couple of years I watched/listened to his shows. His BP must have been soaring. Ol’ Blumie-idiot looks/sounds like he’s on dem-downers. LOL. How’d he get to be a US Sen? Oh, nevermind; Biden, Byrd, Reid etc come to mind right away. Sorry I asked.


13 posted on 04/03/2012 4:02:54 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (I'd vote for a "orange juice can", before 0bummer&HisRegimeFromHell, gets another 4yrs. Can-> later.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: scooby321

Barack was a constitutional professor. Once he has deemed a matter decided, how impudent of a gang of political appointees to imagine they could think better on it.
(Same with Economists, Religious, Civil Libertarians...)


14 posted on 04/03/2012 4:12:04 AM PDT by epluribus_2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: scooby321
How did Obama get a law license?

All Law Schools teach within months of Madision V. Marbury the first semster

I have been thinking about exactly that. How could any graduate of Harvard Law School be incognizant of judicial review as established in Marbury v. Madison? How could he not remember Marshall's classic formulation of constitutionalism at the end of the decision:

Thus, the particular phraseology of the constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written constitutions, that a law repugnant to the constitution is void, and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.

(My emphasis added.)

And this isn't just some anonymous graduate of Harvard Law: this is a former president of the Harvard Law Review.

And from there, he was allowed to teach legal classes at the University of Chicago's Law School.

The Kenyan Clown is the ultimate result of decades of affirmative action: an incompetent not only in the Oval Office, but even at the very career in which he has enjoyed every advantage.

What an embarrassment to this nation to have such a moron occupy its highest office.

15 posted on 04/03/2012 4:17:46 AM PDT by snowsislander (Gingrich 2012.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: carriage_hill

If Beck could handle Blumethal that easily, he should have never made it to the senate.


16 posted on 04/03/2012 4:20:08 AM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: grobdriver

“It’s breath-taking that Obama and the left are actually engaged in threatening the Supreme Court of the United States.”

Remember that it was the high court in Honduras that ordered the removal of their leftist dictator, and remember Obama’s reaction when it happened.


17 posted on 04/03/2012 4:21:45 AM PDT by kearnyirish2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: servo1969

The average moonbat has no army. The average moonbat on the street or in her house has no real defense. Random moonbat removal is easy as pie


18 posted on 04/03/2012 4:22:11 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 ..... Crucifixion is coming)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: YankeeReb

See # 17; the court in Honduras approved the removal of their leftist dictator, and the army complied.


19 posted on 04/03/2012 4:23:19 AM PDT by kearnyirish2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: SampleMan

They are about to stage a putsch. The Anointed 0ne is their god..


20 posted on 04/03/2012 4:23:51 AM PDT by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson