They think like Democrats. lol
Posted on 10/14/2005 7:23:47 AM PDT by new yorker 77
I was listening to the John Batchelor Program on WABC Radio in New York last night.
He commented on the process that went into nominating Miers and added that the likelyhood of her nomination withdrawn has grown.
It has grown from 5% last week, to 30% end of last week, to 50% beginning of this week, to 75% last night.
Fund was on the program to comment on his op-ed piece:
How She Slipped Through Harriet Miers's nomination resulted from a failed vetting process.
Thursday, October 13, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT Link: http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/
Not sure. I just saw it on google's breaking news. Go ahead if you want to post it.
Didn't your mommy ever tell you not to ask personal questions?
Bush now may be forced to choose between an embarrassing withdrawal of the nomination or accepting a fissure among conservatives that could jeopardize the party's hold on power.
He's got a bigger problem than that; if he withdraws her, he's going to infuriate the people who are willing to give her a chance.
But, of course, this is just what the extremists wanted.
My wife and her work friends are lawyers - all typical mildly conservative OCers who aren't really political.
I know some were shocked that little Annie would go off like that. Not me. Maybe I have some defective gene that won't allow me to care what Noonen, Coulter, Kristol etc. think about anything.
Gosh, wrong twice on one thread.
***
Well, you did notice I said "It seems to me." I didn't say it was written in stone. As for the other *supposed* wrong, that remains to be seen.
"Take one for the team"? ;) OK.
Keep thinking you're doing me a favor.
What you have evidently missed is that the majority of us nasty Republicans are sick and tired of being blackmailed by your "side" of this argument. Forever threatening to sit home and not vote and leave the party and actively work against us.
Yeah, that's what the base does, right.
The fact is that you cannot be COUNTED on. Ever. We all know that. And this latest "argument" is cut and pasted living proof of that.
If you want to destroy the GOP, like Patsy did to the Reform Party, you'll have to do it all by yourself. We're certainly not going to help you.
It must be catching. I have that same gene!
"I do not think that the majority of freepers want her name withdrawn."
You may be right. But if it's a minority, it's a larger bloc than I've seen on any other issue.
"There are quite a few people objecting to Miers for reasons other than her supposed lack of qualifications. Quite a few have an ax to grind on some other policy of the Administration."
Not me, and I don't believe that's a significant factor but is instead used by the, I guess I have to call them, Pro-Miers folks to discredit those with principled concerns about this pick.
"To the rank-and-file GOP voter, this attack on the nominee is distasteful."
Not to me, and I don't call it an attack. The level of scorn directed at this nomination should make you realize the seriousness of the concerns about her. They can't be waved away by tearing down all those who criticize her. It's unfortunate that she has to bear this burden. But the principles at stake, and the consequences of a less-than-stellar pick, are huge.
"The thing is, YOU don't have any figures either. It's pretty risky to base your assumptions on something by the number of anti-Miers posts here."
True enough. But I'm basing my assumptions on more than that. There is clear, widespread concern over this nominee, moreso than there has been on any other issue within the Republican/Conservative movement. I don't need to read a poll to know that.
"A couple of them have made it a full-time job to post, making sure that the issue is always on the screen."
You're probably right. I thought that's what he did around here, comment on important issues. There are very few more important than this one and I believe the volume of content is appropriate, although there has been a great deal of ill-conceived comment on all sides.
"I support Meyers having a hearing, where we can judge her knowledge of the Constitution and her judicial temperment. Her integrity is without question. Then the Senators can vote."
I don't really disagree with this, but I'm worried about the hearing being the usual dog and pony show, with no real answers and a foregone conclusion.
Ah, now I see. Can't post anything from Bloomberg on FR. Thanks for the link anyway!
And I just SO needed and wanted you there by my side. :(
Clearly they are not "real" Republicans! :-)
So...OK to ping you if the "0% event" happens?
You have that reversed; I don't want to be by your side.
No, I don't think Coulter said anything about Bush being a drunk lush, in her first column after the nomination she said "while Bush was boozing it up in the eighties" the conservatives were building a strong bench of legal talent.
Transcript of Maher show below, note the quote
COULTER: ...I'll be drinking champagne with you if Karl Rove is indicted. I don't think he's going to be.
COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT here http://www.safesearching.com/billmaher/print/transcripts.shtml
ANN COULTER [via satellite]: I'm fine, thanks. How are you?
MAHER: I understand you're at an undisclosed location.
COULTER: Compton. [laughs]
MAHER: [laughs] You are that – can you imagine you in Compton? I cannot. [laughter]
COULTER: Could be very popular.
MAHER: Okay. But I wanted you here for many reasons. But first of all, you have to explain to me – you and the right wingers, your peeps – you have to explain to me why you do not trust Harriet Miers to do what you want and overturn Roe v. Wade. She is the “church lady.” [laughter] She is a woman who is – she was a Catholic, like you. That wasn't enough. She had to get more “Christ-y.” [laughter] She became a twice-born evangelical. She thinks George Bush is the most brilliant man in the world. What kind of signal do you need? Do we have to put it – do we have to put it on the Jumbotron for you? [laughter]
COULTER: [laughs] No, I think you're right. I think she probably will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. But unlike liberals, we're principled. There is more to the Supreme Court than overturning Roe v. Wade.
MAHER: [laughing] Wait a second, I'm still laughing over that last…[laughter] [applause] [Maher continues laughing]
COULTER: The point is, she's unqualified. Not that she won't vote right. I mean that is the one thing Bush keeps telling us about her, that, you know, he knows her heart. She's not qualified for the position. This isn't like, you know, “best employee of the month.”
MAHER: But you didn't make that objection with every other of George Bush's appointments.
COULTER: It never occurred to us that he'd nominate, as you say, “the cleaning lady”! [laughter] We thought this was clear.
MAHER: Yeah, but where were you when he nominated Mike Brown and every other loser that he put in high positions? [laughter] Why is this sudden – [applause] [cheers] – why is this suddenly an issue?
COULTER: Well, I didn't know Mike Brown was ever being nominated to anything. It wasn't the U.S. Supreme Court. Like I say, this isn't – it's not an ambassadorship. It's not Surgeon General.
MAHER: Right.
COULTER: This is the U.S. Supreme Court. It's the third branch of government. Yeah, we do want somebody qualified, surprisingly enough. And I'm second to no one in wanting Roe v. Wade overturned. But, you know, once that's done, there are other cases. And she is simply unqualified for the job. It's stunning that he would nominate her.
MAHER: Okay, I'm amazed that you don't care about just the one thing, Roe v. Wade, because, I mean—
COULTER: No, I mean, those are the cases you read about in the newspaper, the big social cases, but there's a lot the Supreme Court does. And, you know, there are complicated issues.
MAHER: Right. Hey, sister, we're in accordance on this one.
COULTER: [she laughs]
MAHER: So what do you think of your boyfriend George Bush now? [laughter] I mean – seriously, I mean, this, the deficit—
COULTER: I'm not very happy.
MAHER: He fucked up the hurricane. I mean, are you willing to – are you willing to admit that he's in over his head and always was? And that when Karl Rove looked at him—[applause]—wait, shut up! [laughter] When Karl Rove looked at him and said, “I could make him president,” that was different than looking at him and saying, “He should be president.”
COULTER: [she laughs] No, actually, I'm more mad at you, Bill. If you hadn't been so mean to our Georgie, this never would have happened. [laughter] [groans and boos]
MAHER: [he laughs]
COULTER: I'm running scared now.
MAHER: So, really, what do you – are you – are you turning on him? Because it seems like a lot of the right wing is.
COULTER: Yes, I think this is a big problem.
MAHER: Wow.
COULTER: And as you were saying in your opening—[applause]—you don't want your base turning against you. I mean, this was at least something Bill Clinton had the political wisdom to figure out: when you're on the ropes, you turn to your base. You don't screw your base. [laughter] [applause]
MAHER: We'll get into that later. [laughter] No, no. Let's talk about – speaking of the base, let's talk about Bill Bennett, because he has something in common—
COULTER: Has he been nominated to the Supreme Court? [laughter]
MAHER: No, no. No, but he was in the news, Bill Bennett. I'm sure you know why. And, look, he has something in common with you and I and a lot of other people now, is he got in trouble for “comments” that he made. And, you know, you have to take a little blame, you right-wingers, you Bush lovers, because he got in trouble because he said something in the Bush world – in “BushWorld,” you know, nuance is the same as treason – and he said something a little bit complicated. And he was not advocating aborting all black babies. Barbara Bush is advocating that. [laughter]
COULTER: [she laughs]
MAHER: He was saying – he was saying – I can't believe I'm helping out Bill Bennett – but he was saying that there's plenty of ways we could solve social issues that we really wouldn't – like if I suggested that we abort all babies in Kansas, we could lift SAT scores. [laughter] I wouldn't say that. But I could. But you have to admit—
COULTER: But look at all the Supreme Court nominees we'd lose if we did that. [groans from audience]
MAHER: Okay, all right. But you have to admit that what he was saying is that blacks grow up to be criminals.
COULTER: Right, that's a point that has been made seriously by liberals. And it's been attacked by – by my people, the right-wingers, the Right-to-Lifers. That was an argument seriously put forward in 2002 by these two liberal economists. Our economist, John Lott, then looked at the numbers and saw that they had cooked the books. But, I mean, the ironic thing about this is Bill Bennett was citing a point made seriously by liberals in order to shoot it down. And he gets attacked for even mentioning, you know, the obscene idea of liberals.
MAHER: Yeah, but, if there is more black crime, it's because of poverty and because blacks get arrested more. Not necessarily because they're more prone to crime. Would you not agree with that?
COULTER: I'm not sure I understand all that. The point is—[audience reacts]—if you abort more blacks—
MAHER: [overlapping] I'm saying it's not inherent in their—
COULTER: [overlapping]—that you'd have less crime.
MAHER: [overlapping]—I'm saying it's not their blackness that causes the crime, it's the poverty that causes the crime.
COULTER: I don't know if poverty causes crime. [audience reacts] I mean—
MAHER: Poverty doesn't cause--?
COULTER: No, it's not blackness that causes crime. Yes, correct.
MAHER: You don't think poverty causes crime? See, I do think that down deep, the Republicans do have a problem with black people. I really do. Because during—
COULTER: Neither--! [laughter]
MAHER: [overlapping] During the New Orleans – wait a second—
COULTER: You're the one who wants to abort them to cut down on crime!
MAHER: You have to – wait a second. But during the New Orleans problems, they were obsessed with shooting looters, looters being a property crime. While all this death was going on, the thing that really obsessed you guys was let's shoot the people who are getting something out of Radio Shack.
COULTER: No, I'm glad you mentioned New Orleans, because I think that shows the problem the Democrats have with the blacks, and that is they're constantly willing to, you know, take the votes of black folks, but then accuse them of engaging in cannibalism, of raping two-year-olds, in order to better attack the president. You know, when it serves their political ends, they'll say the most horrible, unbelievable things about blacks, as they did, by the way, in the 2000 election when they blamed the problem with the butterfly ballot on, oh, well, you know, blacks are stupid; they couldn't figure it out. Oh, no, Democrats will say horrible things about blacks if it helps them politically, as they did with New Orleans.
MAHER: I didn't know it was the Democrats who were saying those things. I thought it—
COULTER: Yeah, to attack Bush.
MAHER: I thought it was the stupid media.
COULTER: That's one and the same. [audience reacts negatively] Sorry, that's an overlap.
MAHER: [chuckling]
COULTER: Oh, no, you're right—
MAHER: Okay, hey—
COULTER: [overlapping] [sarcastically]—the media is Republican. [she laughs]
MAHER: [overlapping]—we've made progress. That was a groan and not a boo. [laughter] All right, one last question: considering that Bill Frist is under investigation, Tom DeLay – that's the entire leadership of the Republican Party – Karl Rove is going to be indicted. Tell me that if the Democrat – if a Democratic administration had this many scandals, that you wouldn't be saying it was the most corrupt administration in the history of the United States. [applause]
COULTER: No, there were 17 times more scandals with Clinton. And by the way, it wasn't with, you know, the Comptroller General, it was with the president himself. But just to run through the ones you just mentioned, I'll be drinking champagne with you if Karl Rove is indicted. I don't think he's going to be. An indictment is just an accusation. They've been after Tom DeLay since 1993. I don't think there's anything there. This prosecutor indicts a lot of people, as we know. And Frist, I mean, he's basically been cleared at this point. He started to – this move to sell off the stock back in April when the stock was flying high and all the insiders thought it was doing just fine. So what you have is a lot of, you know, hysterical accusations. We're looking at – for proof of something. Which, hopefully, you'll get with Karl Rove.
MAHER: Let's just remember that they went after Clinton for “TravelGate,” because he gave jobs to his friends in the Travel Office. What's the worst that could happen there? Somebody gets the wrong frequent flyer—
COULTER: Wait. What was the worst that could happen there? There were, like – there were, like, 17 convictions out of – out of—
MAHER: Yeah, that's when we had a Special Prosecutor Law.
COULTER: [overlapping]—of Whitewater.
MAHER: Remember that? The Special Prosecutor Law?
COULTER: [overlapping] A sitting governor was prosecuted.
You can keep it up where you please, Spiffy. But there are not enough beguilable morons available, to help you and yours to declare an appointee to be unqualified, before he/she has ever had an opportunity to officially confirm or discredit that assumption before an official panel.
Oh, great. As long as she didn't call him a drunk on HBO, everything is just fine.
NOT.
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