Posted on 09/14/2005 5:38:44 PM PDT by gobucks
It was a battle of the sound bites yesterday at the Senate Supreme Court nomination hearings. The score? Judge John G. Roberts 1, Democrats 0.
Each of the senators got first licks yesterday in a round of ceremonial speeches, but last up was Roberts himself, and he hit the ball out of the park: In his opening statement, Roberts made his role crystal clear by a homey analogy. "Judges are like umpires. Umpires don't make the rules; they apply them. ... Nobody ever went to a ballgame to see the umpire." Then he promised, "And I will remember that it's my job to calls balls and strikes, and not to pitch or bat."
Good thing, too, the senators must be saying, after watching Roberts go to bat for himself.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., meanwhile, set sail in a sea of lofty rhetoric, noting the chief justice's future responsibilities were "awesome" -- not "in the way my teenage daughter would use the word," but in the biblical sense, like "angels trembling in the presence of God."
Like, wow, man. Just when you were wondering how high Schumer might soar (especially while sailing), suddenly the good senator beached himself in a big, wet mess of metaphor: "(The American people) need to know -- above all -- that if you take stewardship of the high court, you will not steer it so far out of the mainstream that it founders in the shallow waters of extremist ideology. As far as your own views go, however, we have only scratched the surface. In a sense, we have seen maybe 10 percent of you -- just the visible tip of the iceberg, not the 90 percent that is still submerged. And we all know that it is the ice beneath the surface that can sink the ship."
While Schumer was scratching his surface looking for the rest of Roberts, in order to sink him, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., movingly reminded us that She Is A Woman -- A Woman A Lot Older Than You: "As a college student at Stanford, I watched the passing of the plate to collect money so a young woman could go to Tijuana for a back-alley abortion." (Just watched, senator?) Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., digressed into something about "the price of gasoline and the safety of prescription drugs." (Now there's a guy who knows how to use 15 minutes on national TV.) Republican senators mostly used their time to hand Roberts free passes, as in Do Not Answer Question, Judge, Do Pass Go, Collect Supreme Court Seat.
I noticed only one new development: an attempt by left-leaning senators to borrow the right-wing judicial tyranny rhetoric and apply it to decisions by the Supreme Court striking down laws liberals favored. A successful new "framing"? I doubt it. This rhetoric no longer works for conservatives, because the game of politics has become so visibly nasty, partisan and uncivil that few Americans feel very good about the democratic branches of government.
Senators will no doubt continue to speak of themselves in the third person plural, as the voice of We the People. Meanwhile, public approval of the Senate, as Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., himself pointed out, hovers in the 30s.
Americans want some public spaces that "rise above" partisan politics. They want an institution that they can be proud of, and if Congress won't or can't comply, the Supreme Court will do.
Prediction: This is bad news in the long run for America, and for conservatives who have been on the receiving end of the Supreme Court's gradual expansion of its own institutional power and authority. The good news for conservatives is that this same trend will gently buoy Judge Roberts above the iceberg of Chuck Schumer's animosity and onto the placid sea of a seat on the Supreme Court.
I hope Dubya nominates a black conservative woman. I'd like to see the sniveling Demidiots go after her. That will be the greatest show on earth.
Oh me too!
I found reference to Boxer's quote right here on FR.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1460928/posts
Agree. Roberts, and other smart up and coming conservative lawyers, no doubt watched the first Borking more then a decade ago and decided that if their ambition was to reach the top, it is best to be Sphinx-like, and not publicly engage in vigorous intellectual exchanges of constitutional theory. In other words, if you are a conservative, don't leave a paper trail.
"Stopping that is all we should be asking for; to go beyond that is to turn around and do what we decry the libs for doing."
I sincerely am NOT promoting the idea that conservative 'judicial activism' is a good idea.
I am however promoting the idea that this man may indeed be deceptive and deceiving. Not on any evidence whatsoever from him ... but on the emotional reactions of the democrats on the committee. He is going to get many democrat votes in total. I don't know how many. Perhaps as many as half of them if not more.
It is that sense that I have that gives me misgivings, but nonetheless, your charge that I may be myopic may have merit. Time will tell.
btw, I do wear glasses..... I hate em. But haven't wanted to do Lasik....
Thanks for the information about the real Ted Knight. I wonder if that "80100 relatives" should be 80 - 100 relatives.
If Joe Biden is the Ted Baxter of the Senate then who is the Eddie Haskell?? Diane feinstein is The Bad Seed.
Lindsay Graham is Eddie Haskell, no question.
I don't either, but I don't even remember when he was seated on the court...
John Roberts is on his way to being confirmed. The DemocRATS know this and are just playing to their base and priming for the next confirmation battle.
goodness ... what an awesome memory. I read that thread too, and plumb chucked it out of my head. Thanks for putting the post here...
Well, Terryville only has about 5600 residents in total, so I think you are right...
anyway, you are welcome.
I smell several rats, all being slowly roasted by a Supreme Court nominee that has a higher IQ than Kennedy, Biden and Schumer combined!
We could then have the Partial Birth Abortion ban instead of the Souterses and Stevenses and various federal judges overturning it. We are winning the battle in the red state legislatures. Our problem is that the elitist activist courts undo what we gain through our elections. Stopping that is all we should be asking for; to go beyond that is to turn around and do what we decry the libs for doing.
Very, very well said. Thank you.
goodness ... what an awesome memory.
Not bad for an old geezer, eh?
(That said after checking out your tagline)
I hope it is that simple and that true...; but if democrats were so dumb, how is it so many have been so effective in crapping all over this country so effectively all these decades, esp. w/ regards to domestic policy? Luck?
Remember the joke, if there's one lawyer in town, he drives an old, beat-up car; if there's two lawyers in town, they both drive Mercedes (or whatever brand of over-priced car you choose to insert).
Well, there are attorneys smart enough to keep their noses clean, especially considering the fact that conservatives being named to any important court will probably have private eyes nosing through their proverbial trash. Perhaps Roberts is one of them.
We all know conservatives who are great on paper, but just don't hold any star power or can't think on their feet. Then, there are those who can really hold their own -- it's just they aren't invited to be in the public eye very much, for obvious reasons -- the MSM wouldn't want to persuasively put both sides out there, after all.
We'll just have to see. While I agree with the fabulous Ms. Coulter that it would be nice to see a string of fiery conservative speeches by Roberts at Federalist Luncheon's at Tony Cheng's or at the Heritage Foundation, perhaps he was smart enough to hold his tongue for when it counts.
Heck, think about that Loser John Heinz-Kerry, filming himself in action poses in Vietnam...he was thinking ahead. Is it impossible that an honest conservative thought ahead, and it's paying dividends now? One can hope this is the case for Roberts.
I got rid of the tagline a few weeks ago, and then all of the sudden someone pinged me about a laoocoon article some one posted. I couldnt believe and decided to keep the tagline.
Btw, you are just the third person to even comment on it...
As for 'nam', all I can say is that I was born to two teen boomer nutcases in 1963; as a result, I am SERIOUSLY conservative. My mother, I say not proudly, likes to watch MTV. I have decided that boomer disease is incurable...
Guys like you give all of us hope.
"Teach your parents well".
"Heck, think about that Loser John Heinz-Kerry, filming himself in action poses in Vietnam...he was thinking ahead. Is it impossible that an honest conservative thought ahead, and it's paying dividends now? One can hope this is the case for Roberts."
A very very well measure post. I dearly, fervently hope, really HOPE, you are dead right, and I am needlessly worrying. I simply don't trust the MSM/demorat slime the slightest bit; and they are not uncomfortable enough in this case for my read on the cards on the table. But I don't play poker much anymore.
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.