Second of all, to equate overturning Roe with the type of judicial imposition of values as happens when Courts impose gay marriage/civil unions is absurd. The imposition of values was the Roe decision, when they invented a new Constitutional right because they wanted too. It is true that the public opposes overturning Roe, but the political consequences should it happen could be handled with an effective and focused media campaign. All the GOP would have to do is make it perfectly clear that the overturn of Roe would simply return the matter to the states, where the people (who again, presumably support Roe) would have a direct say in the abortion laws they live under. Once the so-called moderates living in the Ohio suburbs understand this, then I doubt seriously if they would join a Dem quest for revenge. I mean, does anyone think that a Pennsylvania suburbanite would change their vote from GOP to Dem because the abortion laws in Texas just got a lot stricter? I think many in the pubic erroneously believe that overturning Roe would itself criminalize abortion; the GOP must remedy this falsehood that the Dem/Left benefits from. Furthermore, the GOP must make it clear that Roe is in fact such an extreme decision that it makes virtually impossible the most reasonable restriction on abortion -- like bans on late-term abortions -- which enjoy overwhelming public support.
Finally, the idea that you could pick a judge conservative enough to reject misusing his/her power to impose gay marriage or civil unions (and the 'or civil unions' is key since most states would reject that euphemistic substitute for marriage as well) but liberal enough to vote in favor of Roe is questionable. Yes, there are people who hold virtually every combination of positions you can imagine, but generally speaking a conservative is conservative on most issues while a liberal is liberal on most issues. So unless a nominee is aked directly what they would do on these issues, I think its unlikely you could get such a justice. The most likely result of picking a pro-Roe justice is to also get a pro-gay marriage justice.
Morris is no doubt well aware of this, but he is himself more socially liberal and he probably supports the eventual judicial imposition of gay marriage.
Knee-jerk reactionary? When I hear that I think of Brennan, Thurgood Marshall, Ginsburg, Earl Warren, Felix Frankfurter and William O. Douglas
'so most want abortion to continue to be legal,"
Um, no, I don't believe "most" want that.
Morris is lost on this one...
Sometimes I wonder if Morris is playing with a full deck so to speak. I think he is reflecting his own lack of morality rather than any supposed knowledge of the public pulse on these issues.
Any one who would help inflict the Clintons on the citizens of the United States strictly for money is amoral and evil.
Could someone help me out here? I thought that judicial nominees are confirmed by "advice and consent" of the (majority) of the Senate. There is nothing in the rules that says that the nominee needs more than 51 votes.
Then the Democrat minority of this Senate decided to create an unwritten rule of their own: We will fillibuster your nominee so that you have to have 60 votes in order to get the nominee confirmed. Add to the mix a spineless Republican majority unwilling to take them up on their fillibuster threat and voila! You need cloture to get your nominee through.
Apparently this stunt hadn't been tried before? Just as there is no rule codifying this tactic, there is likewise no rule to prohibit it. The Dem minority has been getting away with this under the radar.
Is it not the Democrats who have manipulated an unofficial "unfair revision" of the rules here? The Republicans now have to actually clarify what "advice and consent" means as a result of the Democrats machinations.
I love how Morris' logic has the Republicans as the ones jacking around with the rules because they are being forced to spell out "advise and consent" as it has been understood until Leahy and friends decided to eff with it.
Well, that's my understanding of it anyway...