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A Right Turn With a Smile
Washington Post ^ | 07/21/2005 | E.J. Dionne, Jr.

Posted on 07/21/2005 10:14:19 AM PDT by cogitator

Excerpts (of course):

"Roberts was, in short, the shrewdest choice President Bush could have made to fill retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's Supreme Court seat. Roberts could move the court well to the right yet grin his way through the confirmation process. His advertising slogan might be: Staunchly on the Right. But With No Hard Edges."

"If you doubt this, consider that no one disputes Justice Antonin Scalia's intelligence or sense of humor. Many of us would welcome the chance to have Scalia as a professor. But outside the ranks of the right wing, few Americans want their country defined consistently by Scalia's choices. In shifting the balance on the court, Roberts could give Scalia the power to impose his worldview."

"But a good personality and a public record that, in Neas's phrase, is "very sparse" do not mean that Roberts belongs on a closely divided court. The Bush administration will be trying to create a nice-guy stampede to Roberts among moderate Democrats and Republicans. The stampede should be resisted until everyone knows more about where Roberts stands. Conservatives were surprised at how liberal Justice Souter turned out to be. There will be no excuse for discovering too late that Roberts is every bit as conservative as his supporters think he is."

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: conservative; johnroberts; right; roberts; scalia; scotus
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When Dionne panics like this, you KNOW Roberts was a great pick for SCOTUS by POTUS.

Memo to E.J. -- the right wing elected George W. Bush, and that means we want Scalia's worldview imposed on everybody. Majority wins and majority rules!

1 posted on 07/21/2005 10:14:21 AM PDT by cogitator
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To: cogitator

"...Roberts could give Scalia the power to impose his worldview"


As if Souter, Kennedy, Ginsberg, and Stevens haven't been doing that for the past decade thanks to O'Connor.


2 posted on 07/21/2005 10:16:45 AM PDT by Little Pig (Is it time for "Cowboys and Muslims" yet?)
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To: cogitator

"But outside the ranks of the right wing, few Americans want their country defined consistently by Scalia's choices"

Fewer want it defined by you and your liberal MSM ilk!


3 posted on 07/21/2005 10:16:55 AM PDT by jbwbubba
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To: cogitator

Memo to E.J. -- the right wing elected George W. Bush, and that means we want Scalia's worldview imposed on everybody.

Personally, I'd prefer Clarence Thomas's worldview. Thanks.

Majority wins and majority rules!

Actually, no. We do have rights that trump even majority rules.

4 posted on 07/21/2005 10:18:00 AM PDT by Celtjew Libertarian (Shake Hands with the Serpent: Poetry by Charles Lipsig aka Celtjew http://books.lulu.com/lipsig)
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To: cogitator

E.J. needs to change his Depends.............


5 posted on 07/21/2005 10:18:36 AM PDT by Red Badger (HURRICANES: God's way of telling you it's time to clean out the freezer...............)
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To: cogitator

Why is that whenever these left-wingers in the press bring up all the rights we're constantly in danger of losing, they never seem to mention property rights? Do any of them actually own homes, or all they all renters?


6 posted on 07/21/2005 10:20:32 AM PDT by jpl
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To: jpl
Why is that whenever these left-wingers in the press bring up all the rights we're constantly in danger of losing, they never seem to mention property rights?

Property rights have been mentioned by the lefties with regards to Roberts and his potential SCOTUS impact.

7 posted on 07/21/2005 10:22:10 AM PDT by cogitator
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To: cogitator
Here we have, in a single sentence by this educated moron E.J. Dionne, the definition of why the left is stupid, wrong, and headed for additional, well-deserved defeats. Here is that magic sentence:

"But outside the ranks of the right wing, few Americans want their country defined consistently by Scalia's choices."

As anyone who's read any of his opinions on the Court knows, Justice Scalia has only one choice: obey the Constitution wherever it leads. Dionne, and his newspaper, and his dinner party set, and his brain dead political party, do not want "their country" defined by the Constitution.

When you think about the house-taking case from Connecticut, average Americans realizes that we DO want the country governed by the Constitution. And that is EXACTLY why Dionne's "they" are now in the minority, and why we must continue to beat them like a rented mule, until they wise up, or die of old age, whichever comes first.

Did I miss anything?

Congressman Billybob

Latest column: "Re: John Roberts, Supreme Court Nominee"

8 posted on 07/21/2005 10:27:09 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob (Will President Bush's SECOND appointment obey the Constitution? I give 95-5 odds on yes.)
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To: Congressman Billybob

Excellent post, sir!

Average people are able to understand the implications of the Kelo case, and more and more of them are scoffing at the nonsense these liberal clowns spew.


9 posted on 07/21/2005 10:39:22 AM PDT by Grandma Pam
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To: cogitator

Nothing new here. Just some ramblings from another 'rat who was educated beyond his intelligence.

Blessings, Bobo


10 posted on 07/21/2005 10:45:35 AM PDT by bobo1
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To: Congressman Billybob
As anyone who's read any of his opinions on the Court knows, Justice Scalia has only one choice: obey the Constitution wherever it leads. Dionne, and his newspaper, and his dinner party set, and his brain dead political party, do not want "their country" defined by the Constitution.

I wonder how many people in this country have considered or thought about what this country would be like had the Supreme Court -- throughout its entire history -- hewn to strict interpretation of the Constitution. It'd sure be different than what we see now, I'm sure.

It'd be an interesting exercise in alternate history to identify 10 or 20 salient 5-4 decisions, "reverse" them, and then extrapolate the changes in history that would follow. Not something I could do, but a political scientist/historian??

11 posted on 07/21/2005 10:49:41 AM PDT by cogitator
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To: cogitator

The other night I saw Lawrence Tribe wetting himself on television because Roberts would INCREASE property rights


12 posted on 07/21/2005 10:51:29 AM PDT by canadiancapitalist
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To: cogitator
You raise a very interesting point. Like a recent book by Newt Gingrich and Bill Forstchen, you posit one change and then write the alternative history that would have resulted. I'll raise that very subject with Bill, tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks,

John / Billybob
13 posted on 07/21/2005 10:59:05 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob (Will President Bush's SECOND appointment obey the Constitution? I give 95-5 odds on yes.)
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To: Congressman Billybob
If Americans were truly concerned and upset with their country being "defined consistently by Scalia's choices", they would have voted for John Kerry and a Democratic Senate in 2004.
14 posted on 07/21/2005 11:02:33 AM PDT by soxfan
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To: Congressman Billybob
Reminds me of a small book I read years ago: entitled something similar to "If the South Had Won the Civil War". The author posited two events that would have done it -- Ewell takes Culp's Hill on the first day of Gettysburg, and Grant is either severely injured or killed by falling off his horse.

Then the author described the subsequent alternative history. I vaguely remember that North and South finally reunited.

15 posted on 07/21/2005 11:10:39 AM PDT by cogitator
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To: soxfan
If Americans were truly concerned and upset with their country being "defined consistently by Scalia's choices", they would have voted for John Kerry and a Democratic Senate in 2004.

Maybe that's one reason 48.2% of them voted for Kerry. But 50.7% of them voted for Bush, and the winner governs the country.

16 posted on 07/21/2005 11:15:21 AM PDT by cogitator
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To: Congressman Billybob; SierraWasp

Sounds good, prpoperty rights are so important!


17 posted on 07/21/2005 11:15:30 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (History is soon Forgotten,)
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To: cogitator

There are tons of alternate history stories where the Civil War came out differently. If you're interested, look at Harry Turtledove's "American War" series. In it, the Confederacy wins, Lincoln and the Republicans are disgraced, a second war is fought in the 1880s which the South also wins with British help. The parties in the US are the Democrats and the Socialists, with the administrative capital in Philadelphia. When WWI rolls around, the Confederates side with the Brits and the Union sides with the Kaiser. The Union and Germany win. And more...


18 posted on 07/21/2005 11:25:55 AM PDT by Doug Loss
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To: Celtjew Libertarian
Memo to E.J. -- the right wing elected George W. Bush, and that means we want Scalia's worldview imposed on everybody.

Personally, I'd prefer Clarence Thomas's worldview. Thanks.

Majority wins and majority rules!

Actually, no. We do have rights that trump even majority rules.

That's a BIG +1. I was personally hoping for Janice Rogers Brown, as she seems to be Clarence Thomas with, uh ... err, make that a female Clarence Thomas.

It is especially heartwarming to see a fellow libertarian-oriented Jew, as so many of our co-religionists have joined the Dark Side (Feinstein, Schumer, et al are only the pond scum that have floated to the top of that cesspool).

19 posted on 07/21/2005 11:29:08 AM PDT by Ancesthntr
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To: cogitator
The issues at stake are not abstract. They have to do with the government's power to...

Careful E.J., your letting it slip. Leftism is all about granting the government more power isn't it?

20 posted on 07/21/2005 11:32:41 AM PDT by Plutarch
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