Kennedy Calls Bush Minority Nominees 'Neanderthals'

NewsMax.com ^ | 11/14/03 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

Sen. Ted Kennedy called President Bush's judicial nominees "Neanderthals" on Friday, a group that includes Hispanic lawyer Miguel Estrada and African-American Judge Janice Rogers Brown.

Boasting of his party's resolve in the face of GOP attempts to stop their filibuster, Kennedy told the Senate, "What has not ended is the resolution and the determination of the members of the United States Senate to continue to resist any Neanderthal that is nominated by this president of the United States for any court, federal court in the United States."

Kennedy's overtly racist language stunned even liberal CNN correspondent Jonathan Karl, who reported, "Strong words from Ted Kennedy suggesting that some of these nominees are Neanderthals."

Karl said Kennedy's harsh tone was "exactly what Republicans point to when they say it is the Democrats that have been the extremists on this."

[Ladytotheright]

But they die

[Porterville]

fric-up

[wimpycat]

I don't think the Dems can use the same tactic if the Republicans block their legislation. Graham's legal argument rises out of the "advice and consent" portion of the Constitution, specifically. Regular legislation doesn't fall under that clause.

"He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments."

The Dems could perhaps use the same legal tactic if the Republicans tried to block the nomination of an Ambassador or Cabinet Member, or perhaps block a treaty, but the Supreme Court would laugh in their faces if they tried to use it for other things.

What I think would happen, though, if Graham won his case, is that the actual procedural rule might be ruled un-Constitutional (60 votes to invoke cloture)--either all together, or maybe only with respect to the nominations mentioned in the "advice and consent" clause.

[Petronski]

Hey, among liberals in the Senate, Teddy Kennedy is a star . . . .

. . . . if by star you mean gigantic round gaseous body emitting huge amounts of heat.

Apologies to Triumph the assault comic dog.

[Maria S]

What size is he...about a 52B?

[Brad’s Gramma]

Kennedy can but Zell can't?

[Kay Soze]

A Kennedy has never met a women they did not want to drown.

[Humidston]

UN-FREAKIN'-BELIEVABLE!!!

[Humidston]

I simply MUST copy the first sentence:

Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia came under fire Friday from civil rights activists who demanded an apology from the conservative Democrat after he equated his party's opposition to the nomination of a conservative African-American judge to a lynching.

And BG, THANK YOU for that link!!

[Yankereb]

Kennedy also said that Bush should quit sending them these "right wing turkeys". So now they're "right wing turkeys". Where's the outrage in the press? I think Teddy ought to take his bottle of J&B and stagger home. He's a disgrace to the Senate. He becomes more and more shrill.

[gatorgriz]

Teddy, is a Kennedy BIGOT folks! Always has been, always will be... And in case anyone in American tuned into CSPAN to catch just a few miuntes of the Dumbocratic side of the debate; they would have quickly discovered that the left wing of the Dumbocratic party is as well...

As for that drunken sot named Teddy; well it wouldn't bother me in the slighest to wake up one morning to find news he'd been found drown in his own vomit... Serve him right...

[RedBloodedAmerican]

- Senator Kennedy's driver's license had expired on February 22, 1969 (nearly 5 months before the accident at Chappaquiddick) and had not been renewed.
- Although driving with an expired license was only a misdemeanor, it did provide the evidence of negligence needed to prove a manslaughter charge in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.
- The license problem was "fixed" by officials at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, under the direction of Registrar Richard McLaughlin, before the legal proceedings began

[TaxRelief]

Redheads 'are neanderthal'
BY A CORRESPONDENT
RED hair may be the genetic legacy of Neanderthals, scientists believe. Researchers at the John Radcliffe Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford say that the so-called “ginger gene” which gives people red hair, fair skin and freckles could be up to 100,000 years old. They claim that their discovery points to the gene having originated in Neanderthal man who lived in Europe for 200,000 years before Homo sapien settlers, the ancestors of modern man, arrived from Africa about 40,000 years ago. Rosalind Harding, the research team leader, said: “The gene is certainly older than 50,000 years and it could be as old as 100,000 years. “An explanation is that it comes from Neanderthals.” It is estimated that at least 10 per cent of Scots have red hair and a further 40 per cent carry the gene responsible, which could account for their once fearsome reputation as fighters. Neanderthals have been characterised as migrant hunters and violent cannibals who probably ate most of their meat raw. They were taller and stockier than Homo sapiens, but with shorter limbs, bigger faces and noses, receding chins and low foreheads. The two species overlapped for a period of time and the Oxford research appears to suggests that they must have successfully interbred for the “ginger gene” to survive. Neanderthals became extinct about 28,000 years ago, the last dying out in southern Spain and southwest France.

---

Apparently Teddy is closer to a Neanderthal than the nominated judges.

[John Valentine]

Great. Now I'm a neanderthal.

It could be worse. You could be a Kennedy.

[Political Junkie Too]

I think the advice and consent point is strongest with the disenfranchisement argument.

With legislation, it is reasonable to extend debate if enough of a minority feel that they didn't have sufficient time to make their case. With advice and consent, the President is asking the Senate for their advice and consent. It is unconstitutional for a Senator from New York to prevent a Senator from Texas from advising the President, and then consenting or withholding consent.

That is the crux of the unconstitutional filibuster -- a minority of Senators is preventing other Senators from advising the President.

-PJ

[Wrigley]

No, he has no shame.

[wimpycat]

Exactly. I don't know much about this stuff, but Lindsey Graham has a way of explaining things so even I can understand it.

[Mercat]

I hope that they make a commercial of Kennedy saying this and then show the faces of the African-American woman in the black areas and run the one with Estrada on Spanish speaking TV over and over and over and over.

[Political Junkie Too]

Well, put another way, Schumer and his 44 other friends might as well just lock the other Senators in a room with no telephones or computers until the Presidency changes parties. He is, in effect, forcing the other Senators to shut up about nominees when the President calls asking for advice.

-PJ

[TaxRelief]

True. Whoever runs against Kennedy was just handed a gift in a golden wrapper.