Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

5-4: The Genius of George W. Bush
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/04/19/143114.php ^ | 4/19/07 | Rick Vassar

Posted on 04/19/2007 11:49:23 AM PDT by Rick Vassar

‘The 5-4 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion…’ -Associated Press April 19, 2007

“It's ready for a retarded president, why wouldn't it be ready for an African American president?’ -Chris Rock, Life Magazine 2007

President Bush’s management strategy is a thing of beauty.

Walk around, act sort of absent-minded, mix up your words here and there, and people begin to lower their expectations – and their defenses. In an unguarded moment, something slips out, and allows you the opportunity to make decisions with much more information on what the other side is thinking.

Some people say he’s not too smart. Some say much worse. Many of those who say such things have strong egos and truly believe that they can clearly express their thoughts, but the president is too vacant to understand them.

That’s a big mistake.

There are many markers on President Bush’ tenure that will define his presidency. The 2000 election, 9/11, and Iraq are just a few. However, the day that should be remembered as the defining moment of Mr. Bush’ presidency is October 3, 2005, when he nominated Harriet Miers for the United States Supreme Court.

First, some history:

July 19, 2005 - Mr. Bush nominates John Roberts to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor September 3, 2005 – Chief Justice William Rehnquist dies. Mr. Bush moves Roberts’ nomination over to replace Rehnquist as Chief Justice September 29, 2005 – Roberts confirmed as Chief Justice and sworn in October 3, 2005 – Mr. Bush nominates Harriet Miers for the Justice O’Connor vacancy October 28, 2005 – Miers, under a firestorm of criticism, withdraws her nomination October 31, 2005 – Mr. Bush nominates Samuel Alito January 31, 2006 – Alito is confirmed

Everyone assumed after Mr. Bush was re-elected in 2004 that he would have at least one Supreme Court nomination in his second term, and perhaps as many as three or four, depending on the health of the members of the Court.

The first good move was the nomination of John Roberts to replace the retiring Justice O’Connor. Roberts was a judge for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia since 2003. He had been nominated in 2001, but the nomination was held up by Democrats in the Senate Judiciary Committee and never came to a vote. In 2003, he was confirmed by voice vote.

The significance of this is clear – had the Democrats not held up Roberts’ confirmation, they would have had two years of judicial review that may have lent credence to his conservative leanings. Since he had been approved for the appeals court, the Senate really had only the two previous years in which to attack his record.

Now, with the Court split 4-4 on ideological grounds, the left knew that the real fight would have to be with this next vacancy. If the Bush administration got the conservative voice it desired for the Court, it could radically alter the social agenda for years to come. The stakes were high, and the left came loaded for bear.

So, on October 3, 2005, President Bush gave them Harriet Miers.

I can just imagine the conversation at the White House: Harriet, we need to send you out there as the nominee. You’re going to get skewered for a month or so, and then you’ll withdraw, and we’ll send in Sam Alito before the opposition can reload. Then you just come back over here to the White House.

Besides, think how good it will look on your resume…

And that’s exactly what happened. Both sides of the aisle voiced vehement opposition to the nomination, and many indicated that Mr. Bush had finally lost it. When Justice Alito was nominated, the left was depleted and done. They had attacked Mrs. Miers primarily on qualification and not ideology. When Justice Alito was nominated, he was clearly qualified, and the opposition could not overcome its own arguments. Mr. Bush now had the conservative Court he so desired.

Genius, I tell you. Mr. Bush set a political trap, and the opposition fell for it hook, line and sinker.

And they know it, too.

Yesterday, the Court upheld the ban on partial birth abortion. The left is outraged. It has always felt that the right to choose was a constitutional right, and any restriction erodes that right. Let’s face it, any right that involves the sacrifice of another life is no right at all, and should not be protected.

The left also says that this does not take into consideration the life of the mother in critical circumstances. It appears that this court disagrees. If you are concerned the blanket "right to choose" is going away, your concerns are valid.

This Court seems to be leaning towards a full ban on abortion, which will then allow the debate to center around exceptions, especially in the area of the protection of the life of the mother. The left, since 1973, believe that this is an all or nothing fight. In their minds, the right to an abortion is and should remain constitutionally guaranteed.

Remember, the conversation does not have to be all or nothing.

It just has to be 5-4.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: abortion; georgewbush; harrietmiers
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-66 next last
To: Rick Vassar
I considered that scenario to be a possibility at the time, but there is no way to know for sure, even now, what the mechanics were behind the HM decision. I'm just happy things turned out the way they did, to put it diplomatically.
21 posted on 04/19/2007 12:14:35 PM PDT by M203M4 (Constitutional Republic has a nice ring to it - alas, it's incompatible with the communist manifesto)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rick Vassar
This Court seems to be leaning towards a full ban on abortion...

No, it isn't. It's leaning toward throwing the issue back to the states. Some states will permit abortion and some will not.
22 posted on 04/19/2007 12:15:32 PM PDT by HaveHadEnough
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rick Vassar
Here's what Hitlery had to say about the ruling and the Supremes: Its in the latest letter from Her Ghastliness. Even she recognizes the importance of conservative Supreme Court Judges. The four idiotic libs on the Court continue to support infanticide, even late term abortion. The very thought of her in the presidency is so repugnant, I can scarcely imagine anything worse.

Dear Friends, We already knew how important this election was for every American. Yesterday, the Supreme Court raised the stakes even higher.

The Court took a dramatic departure from decades of rulings that upheld a woman's right to choose and recognized the importance of women's health. Let's be clear: this allows the government to dictate to women what they can and cannot do about their own health.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg disagreed with this decision and warned, "This cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this court -- and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women's lives."

When the Senate debated the nominations of Samuel Alito and John Roberts to the Supreme Court, I spoke out on the Senate floor about the danger they posed to our constitutional liberties, including the right to choose. I urged my colleagues to reject them, and I voted against both of them. Yesterday, unfortunately, we saw the consequences of failing to stop their confirmations.

The decade of work that the far right has done to chip away at our rights was paid off in this Supreme Court decision. They worked hard to gain the presidency and the Senate so they could shape a Supreme Court that rewarded them by putting a narrow ideology above our constitutional rights. In their ruling, the conservative majority even used right-wing code language, referring to obstetricians as "abortion doctors."

There's one way we can respond: redouble our efforts to win the White House and more seats in the House and Senate. We need a president who understands that the best way to protect women's health and reduce the number of abortions is to expand access to family planning -- not to threaten doctors and patients. We need a Congress that will say no to rolling back the rights of women.

And here is my promise to you: As a senator, I will do everything I can to make sure women can protect their health, and when I am president, I will treat the health and well being of women and our constitutional rights once again as true American values.

I hope you'll pass this message along to your friends and talk with them about why this issue is important to you. I'll follow up with you soon with ways you can take direct action to protect our right to choose.

Sincerely,

Hillary Rodham Clinton

23 posted on 04/19/2007 12:15:43 PM PDT by Paulus Invictus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Always Right

But we would need to recover the Senate to do it.


24 posted on 04/19/2007 12:17:52 PM PDT by Paulus Invictus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: JamesP81
I don’t know that the Miers nomination was a ploy that in depth on W’s part, however, I do think he’s a very shrewd operator and recognized an opportunity which he wisely took.

Under the circumstances, Bush probably got the two best justices confirmed he could have. I really don't think Roberts and Alito are in the mold or Thomas and Scalia, but they should be reliable on conservative issues as Reinhquist. I really wished Bush has tried to get a more staunch conservative like Janice Rogers Brown first arguing we are just replacing a conservative with a conservative. Roberts and Alito are brillian enough and have such an outstanding judicial record that it would be hard to block their confirmation under any circumstances.

25 posted on 04/19/2007 12:18:30 PM PDT by Always Right
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Rick Vassar
I can just imagine the conversation at the White House: Harriet, we need to send you out there as the nominee. You’re going to get skewered for a month or so, and then you’ll withdraw, and we’ll send in Sam Alito before the opposition can reload. Then you just come back over here to the White House.

Nice try, Rick, but no cigar today.

Bush was dead serious about Harriet. He believed that we could never get a proper jurist on the Court which explains a lot about why he went with the stealth nomination of Roberts.

The way Alito sailed through and impressed everyone so much showed that we don't have to send in weak sisters to get them confirmed. A strong nominee, carefully chosen (as Alito's Italian and Catholic background was), helps confirmation tremendously.

The real great unwritten story is the full-fledged social conservative partnership between the GOP and conservative Catholic elements in America.

We Republicans have put 5 Catholics on the Court. They just all voted together on PBA, the four faithful ones reeling in the one who had gone off the pro-life reservation. This is a very Catholic thing that just happened, even if everyone is afraid to say so out loud.

I'm a militant Baptist but I'm fine with granting these justices possibly more power than any president that will be elected in my lifetime will likely hold. But maybe next time, we Republicans can find a superbly qualified Protestant or evangelical type. A little diversity on our team is a nice thing too.
26 posted on 04/19/2007 12:18:39 PM PDT by George W. Bush
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rick Vassar
President Bush is not dumb.

He does do dumb things from time-to-time. But we still like him.
27 posted on 04/19/2007 12:21:00 PM PDT by Quick or Dead (Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms - Aristotle)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rick Vassar

I voted for the President twice, and I’m not going to sugar coat it, he’s been a disappointment in his second term in my view.

Harriet Miers marks the moment the wheels came off.

That said, his Presidency will be treated kindly by historians a few decades from now, when the aging liberals rants won’t penetrate six feet of dirt above their heads.

And no matter what any of us think, he’s changed the USSC from left of center to right of center.

Not bad, not bad at all.


28 posted on 04/19/2007 12:21:08 PM PDT by Badeye (Sally's not well? No kidding....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rick Vassar

Great article.


29 posted on 04/19/2007 12:24:12 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heros have always been cowboys--Reagan and Bush)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rick Vassar

It has been reported that Bush could skin his frat brothers alive in poker, and that he could bluff like B’rer Rabbit. I choose to believe this Harriet Miers head-fake in light of that. I also love the way the White House releases thousands and thousands of documents on Friday evenings whenever the Dems are demanding substantiation. They really know how to ruin a staffer’s weekend.


30 posted on 04/19/2007 12:24:30 PM PDT by bukkdems (Western democracies! Ban the niqab in public.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rick Vassar

He wanted Miers on there.


31 posted on 04/19/2007 12:26:57 PM PDT by Vision ("Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him." Jeremiah 17:7)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Always Right
Harriet Miers fiasco was not intentional and this Court is at least 4-5 for Roe v. Wade. Kennedy is on record supporting Roe, and we still aren’t sure if Alito and Roberts would go that far. We still need to replace one liberal justice to have any shot at putting a stake in Roe.

Harriet Myers is really karl rove in drag. If you want a liberal opening, stop whining, either wait until one dies, or...

32 posted on 04/19/2007 12:27:50 PM PDT by USS Alaska (Nuke the terrorist savages - In Honor of Standing Wolf)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Always Right
Harriet Miers fiasco was not intentional and this Court is at least 4-5 for Roe v. Wade. Kennedy is on record supporting Roe, and we still aren’t sure if Alito and Roberts would go that far. We still need to replace one liberal justice to have any shot at putting a stake in Roe.

Right on all counts.

33 posted on 04/19/2007 12:29:24 PM PDT by Oliver Optic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: rhombus

I was in on it and the nastiness was just part of the plan.

Always Right, you magnificent bastard. :-)

_______________________________________________________

Great job, Always Right! I wish I was a Magnificent Bastard like you. My wife says I’m half-way there, though.

....Now if I could only figure out how to be magnificent too.


34 posted on 04/19/2007 12:29:24 PM PDT by Terpin (Missing: One very clever and insightful tagline. Reward for safe return!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: rhombus
Two things flew under the DBM radar after Roberts was confirmed, however yours truly attempted to point them out.

1. Roberts promised a more deliberative body.
2. Kennedy was an individual who could be turned by a good argument.

35 posted on 04/19/2007 12:30:39 PM PDT by gov_bean_ counter ( Who is the Democrat's George Galloway?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Always Right
Perhaps it didn't start out intentionally, but rather Bush had good reactions - a good counter puncher as someone said above. His left hook missed, he got off balance and was hit with a couple of good punches, but that got the opponent off balance, and open to a solid right on the chin.

It's a mind thing. If you're good at what you're do, and believe your cause is just, then a couple of bad days are just an opportunity to win by coming at it from the other side, rather than some inevitable downfall.

36 posted on 04/19/2007 12:37:27 PM PDT by ThePythonicCow (The Greens steal in fear of pollution, The Reds in fear of greed; Fear arising from a lack of Faith.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Rick Vassar
I'm grateful for President Bush's judicial nominations ... but this Harriet-the-head-fake theory is pure fancy.

It seems to have been hatched by Bush loyalists who couldn't bear the thought that the outcry from the right sank the Miers nomination and gave us Alito.

All the same, even with Miers I believe the President was clumsily trying to keep faith with pro-life voters. His fear of another Souter led him to pick someone he knew well and believed he could count on to vote against Roe.

37 posted on 04/19/2007 12:39:19 PM PDT by Oliver Optic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Parmenio
Reagan made a clear mistake in O’Conner, though not nearly as big a mistake as Bush I made with Souter. However, Reagan tried Bork and was shot down with Spector, Kennedy leading the voting against him. Reagan then tried Ginsburg (not Ruth Buzzie Ginsburg) and he resigned due to past pot smoking. Reagan then, tired after the Borking and Ginsburg resignation, gave us Kennedy.
38 posted on 04/19/2007 12:47:48 PM PDT by MBB1984
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Badeye

He just got complacent. Also, unlike John Kerry and Al Gore, it was never his lifelong goal to become President. He’s never had any sort of “grand vision” for transforming the country. He ran as a “compassionate” conservative, not a traditional conservative. And that’s pretty much how he’s run his Presidency. Miers was a Rovian plot, not bush.


39 posted on 04/19/2007 1:01:17 PM PDT by DrGunsforHands
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Rick Vassar

I love how Dingy Harry is fit to be tied by political means, over this ruling, which he voted for in the first place.


40 posted on 04/19/2007 1:23:24 PM PDT by BigSkyFreeper (There is no alternative to the GOP except varying degrees of insanity)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-66 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
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

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