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Moral liberalism and the decadence of culture. What began to concern me more and more were the clear signs of rot and decadence germinating within American society-a rot and decadence that was no longer the consequence of liberalism but was the actual agenda of contemporary liberalism. . . . Sector after sector of American life has been ruthlessly corrupted by the liberal ethos. It is an ethos that aims simultaneously at political and social collectivism on the one hand, and moral anarchy on the other. -Irving Kristol, "My Cold War" Equivocation has never been Irving Kristol's long suit. About the...

FReepers please post your President Rick Santorum Dream Team thoughts here. VP - Allen West or Marco Rubio Sec. Of Def Duncan Hunter Sr. not Jr. Or Jerry Boykin WH Press Sec Sarah Palin you betcha! Sec. Of State John Bolton ! Wow can you see the left explode! Fed Chair Herman Cain Sr. Advisor Newt if he helps Rick take out Romney WH Bathroom Cleaning Crew Chief Mitt Romney Attorney General Joe Arpaio Dept of Homeland Security - Gone - Now part of Justice Dept of Agriculture - Gone - Now a part of Interior. Dept of Health and...

Late last month, as America was ignoring the 24th anniversary of the Senate's rejection of conservative jurist Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court, something extraordinary happened: New York Times columnist Joe Nocera admitted the borking of Judge Bork spawned today's toxic political culture. "(R)arely has a failed nominee had the pedigree — and intellectual firepower — of Bork," Mr. Nocera wrote. Judge Bork held conservative opinions, but none could be "fairly characterized as extreme." That didn't deter then-Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., who denounced "'Robert Bork's America' as a place 'in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks...

24 years ago a new term was coined, “borking” or “to bork.” It is a tactic in which Democrats still revel, except when they feel they are on the receiving end at which point they cry foul. Borking is the complete politicization of the judicial nomination process, in which bad motives are imputed to purely legal positions. So if a judicial nominee believes that a particular issue is beyond the reach of the federal judiciary and properly for the political process, that nominee will have the worst motives imputed to him or her, including an imputed desire for bad results....

Meet Mitt Romney’s new top legal adviser... Bork says he has known Romney, the on-and-off-again Republican frontrunner, for the past decade and supported his candidacy last time around as well as during the current race. “I get an impression, a very strong impression, of competence,” Bork says, adding that “in addition to his undoubted skills as a businessman and a governor, Mr. Romney stands out as a leader.” Bork confides about his role in the campaign: “I’d like to be asked a question now and then for advice. But that’s about the extent of it.” As for his initial attraction...

Of all the manifold aspects of cultural decay, one of the most difficult to recognize is the corruption of constitutional law. When one thinks of the Supreme Court, or even of the judiciary overall, the image that comes to mind is a procession of old, graying men in black robes, blowing their noses into crusty handkerchiefs as they read dusty legal tomes. They sit on their lofty benches, refusing to budge from ancient precedent and the letter of the law. Humorless curmudgeons, they are capable of mercy only if the accused implores them, crying his eyes out in the process....

The problem with putting the Ninth Amendment into effect today is that many no longer appreciate the Natural Rights that the Constitution's framers took for granted. Amendment IX: “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” There is little, if any, question that the rights retained by the people refer, at least in part, to what are called "Natural Rights" 11—that is, the rights people have independent of those they are granted by a government and by which the justice of governmental action is to be judged....

Elena Kagan thinks that the "Borking" of Robert Bork during his 1987 Supreme Court confirmation hearings would deserve a commemorative plate if the Franklin Mint launched a "great moments in legal history" dishware line. This isn't the time to rehearse the reasons why Kagan is wrong on that score. Still, one adverse result of the Bork hearings is worth dwelling on. Bork was the last Supreme Court nominee to give serious answers to serious questions. But because the left successfully anathematized him, no nominee since has dared show Borkian forthrightness. Consider Monday's high-court ruling: The Second Amendment right to own...

(CNSNews.com) – Former federal appellate judge and Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork said that Elena Kagan’s lacks the "mature philosophy of judging" needed to be a Supreme Court justice and that th Supreme Court is "drifting toward a committee of ideologues." In a Wednesday conference call sponsored by Americans United for Life, Judge Bork said that Kagan still displayed the tendencies of a young constitutional lawyer with “inflated dreams” of what constitutional law can and should accomplish.

Judge Robert Bork, whose nomination to the Supreme Court went down in flames in 1987 after contentious confirmation hearings, said for the first time today that he is opposed to Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Court. "Ms. Kagan has not had the time to develop a mature philosophy of judging," said Bork in a conference call organized by Americans United for Life. "It is typical of young lawyers going into constitutional law that they have inflated dreams of what constitutional law can do and what courts can do," Bork said. "That’s the danger of Ms. Kagan that she hasn’t had...

Justice Stevens says he will 'surely' retire during Obama's presidency By Jordan Fabian - 04/03/10 04:47 PM ET The usually reticent with the press Justice John Paul Stevens gave two major interviews this weekend that provide new information about if and when he will retire from the bench. Speculation has arisen that Stevens, 89, will step down sooner rather than later. The White House is preparing for confirmation proceedings over the summer, the New York Times wrote Saturday. In an interview with the Washington Post, Stevens, who is considered a member of the liberal wing of the Court, Stevens said...

Racists! That incendiary charge hurled by Democrats at Tea Party activists protesting against ObamaCare was shown to be totally false by Jack Cashill in his article "A Closer Look at the Capitol Steps Conspiracy". Given the Democratic Party's 150-year record of racist rhetoric and racial violence - from the days of slavery until today - it is astonishing to see Democrats sanctimoniously playing the race card.

Impeccable credentials are no defense against Republican obstruction tactics for Obama nominees waiting for U.S. Senate confirmation. The Republicans seem to be stalling the president's appointments simply because they can. They held up the nomination of Barbara Keenan, selected to become the first woman on the Virginia-based Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, even though there was no controversy about her qualifications, ideology or anything else - and the court was seriously shorthanded. Still, the nomination languished for months because of a GOP filibuster. She was ultimately confirmed, 99-0. These delay tactics go beyond the usual tit-for-tat when power shifts...

Counting the majority opinion and the various partial concurrences and dissents, today’s landmark First Amendment decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission clocks in a hefty 183-pages. But one thing that jumped right out while reading the dissent (it’s also a concurrence, in parts) written by Justice John Paul Stevens and joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor, is Stevens' angry tone. He calls the idea that the First Amendment forbids distinctions between individuals and individuals organized as a corporation “a glittering generality” with no foundation in the law, and later declares, “Under the majority's...

A legal advocacy group advised by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor in the 1980s actively opposed conservative Robert H. Bork's nomination to the high court calling him a "threat" to the "civil rights of the Latino community." The Senate went on to reject President Reagan's nominee in 1987. The revelation is included in 350 pages of documents the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund delivered to the senators late Tuesday evening. Judge Sotomayor worked for PRLDEF in various capacities from 1980 until she became a federal judge in 1992, spending most of her time as a board member. The...

August 28, 2009 Kennedy, Bork and the Politics of Judicial Destruction TOBIN HARSHAW The death of a public figure, especially a polarizing one, always makes things a bit dicey in opinionland. Do the detractors speak ill of the dead? Do the defenders pre-empt such criticisms, or does that just inspire the critics? In the case of Ted Kennedy, whose many accomplishments got due recognition everywhere, most chose to duck the fight on anything more problematic. There was comparatively little talk about a Harvard scandal, a very sad end to a first marriage or a controversial rape trial. Even among the...

The death of Senator Edward Kennedy from a malignant brain tumor superimposes somber intimations of mortality onto a frequently frivolous political scene. It puts us in mind us of what Wordsworth called the "fallings from us, vanishings" that ultimately reconcile us to our own mortality. As a young man Senator Kennedy became, as he is today, the pillar of a large extended family. We extend our sympathies to his family upon his death. Senator Kennedy became the lion of the Senate and of American liberalism. For better or worse, his legislative accomplishments have done much to shape the United States...

Senator Ted Kennedy has died.

Legal scholar and former U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork tells Newsmax he doesn't believe court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's assertion that she is "entirely governed by law," as he believes she should be. In an exclusive interview, he also said Sotomayor, who's going through confirmation hearings before a Senate panel, should be disqualified from consideration because of a statement she made. And Bork stated that the Roe v. Wade decision has been the "most dangerous" the Supreme Court has ever made because it has "embittered our politics." See Video: Judge Robert Bork discusses Sonia Sotomayor and the Senate hearings -...

WASHINGTON – A Puerto Rican civil rights organization advised by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor campaigned against seating conservative Robert Bork on the high court in the late 1980s, according to new documents that shed light on the group that's become a key focus of Republicans questioning Sotomayor's fitness to be a justice. The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund officially opposed GOP nominee Bork in 1987, "because of the threat he poses to the civil rights of the Latino community," its president reported in one of several documents from the group that the Senate Judiciary Committee released Wednesday....