Posted on 07/05/2005 5:03:28 AM PDT by stan_sipple
"I feel sorry for the poor devil who will be nominated," said former Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.), referring to anyone chosen to succeed Rehnquist. Danforth shepherded the nomination of Clarence Thomas through the Senate in 1991 and called it "the worst thing I ever lived through. Just awful."When historians trace the origins of how Supreme Court nominations became a flash point of culture wars and how brutal, bare-knuckle politics came to dominate the confirmation process, their search will lead them to Missouri. In the steamy trough of the Mississippi River valley, the seeds of the current culture wars were sown--court fights on abortion, school desegregation, right-to-die laws, capital punishment.
Missouri last year was the first state where voters approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Before Congress began debating stem cell research legislation this year, the Missouri General Assembly argued over a measure to make embryonic stem cell research a felony. What you have in Missouri is the vestiges of resentment toward the elite," said Harriett Woods, a Democrat who was lieutenant governor of Missouri during one of two terms of Gov. John Ashcroft, who went on to become a U.S. senator and attorney general. "To some, they see societal change as an attempt to destroy their values, to tell them what to do, and they will fight it from the school board to the Supreme Court.
"Legislative bodies seem to be stalemated when trying to enact laws to reflect change, and now the courts are doing it," Woods said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
'Us vs. them' has roots in Missouri
More accurately, 'us vs. them' has its roots in Ted Kennedy, NOW, NARAL, ACLU, and other far-left fringe pols and groups that borked Bork. That happened four years before they tried to bork Thomas.
**"I feel sorry for the poor devil who will be nominated,"**
If that isnt shameful what is?
I too feel sorry for the Nominee, Its certain anyone Bush nominates will become a target for liberal attacks. Attacks so low that most humans would be ashamed to launch them. His family will be attacked along with his religion, his ethics, maybe even his mother if they can find anything on her.
Although I never wanted to move here, I have found a new respect for the people of the state of Missouri. I always considered myself as a political refugee from the Peoples Republic of Washington State. I miss the beauty of the occupied territory and hope that one day it will again the scourge of liberalism will be vanquished.
Not a Show Me native I. Still, I'm finding more in common than with folks from the Hawkeye.
---My point? The funeral procession was "given wide berth"--Each oncoming auto on the two lane hiway pulled over, off the road as they could, as they noticed the hearse coming their way......Sure have NOT seen that courtesy in Flori-DUH? How bout your state?
It is a typical Tim Jones Chicago Libune article. Note that though the headline makes you beleive that Jones tried to guage opinion in Missouri, the only people he actually quotes are politicians and the inevitable left-wing academics. Not one actual ordinary Missourian is quoted.
The way this is worded, it just assumes that those who "see" things this way are inaccurate. I wish the author had at least attempted to argue his point rather than assuming it as fact by means of a quote.
For people to see things this way is not at all illogical.
Typical here.
You can see how much lower the Dems have fallen since 1991. Despite the Dems having a 57-43 majority in the Senate then, Thomas still managed to get confirmed, if only by a small margin. VP Quayle was in the Senate then to cast a tie breaker if that became necessary. At no time was a filibuster threatened, as I recall.
Now that the Dems are in the minority, like whiney children who can't get their way, they know all they have to do is obstruct. I don't know how Mr Bush will get any nominee through.
Absolutely right, Harriet Woods is about the shrillest liberal Missouri POl I can think of; Danforth, part of the "Switzerland" wing of the republican party, helped Thomas through the 1991 nomination process because he hired Thomas out of YaleLaw to work in the Mo Atty General's office, not because he wanted to push the SCOTUS to the right.
http://showmeblawgs.blogspot.com/2005/07/show-me-state-roots-of-culture-war.html
They do that in my town in KY but don't in Louisville. Probably not in Lexington either.
I agree.
Where in the world would they get that idea?
They still do that in West Virginia. BTW, God bless the good folk of Missouri.
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