" It not only looks like Teddy...It SMELLS like Teddy..."
Posted on 01/14/2006 6:46:21 AM PST by FerdieMurphy
"The best and only safe road to honor, glory, and true dignity is justice." --George Washington
You heard it here first: Ted Kennedy, the Democrat Party mascot, is a tone-deaf alien from a distant galaxy. How else to explain his impudent inquisition into the integrity of our nation's next Supreme Court justice, the Honorable Samuel Alito?
In Senate Judiciary Committee hearings this week, Kennedy actually asserted that the nominee's association with a conservative Princeton alumni group two decades ago should disqualify him from a seat on the High Court.
Well, it's not as if Judge Alito is a spoiled trust baby who got kicked out of Harvard for cheating. Nor is he a United States senator who got drunk, drove a young female campaign worker to her death, then chose not report it to authorities until the next day, and then, only after calling his lawyer, concocting an alibi and developing a strategy to contain the political fallout.
Only an extraterrestrial could wield so much power over the minds of some Bay Staters, willing them to re-elect him to the Senate in perpetuity. Perhaps they are "Manchurian constituents," but we digress.
Looking at the spectacle of Judge Alito's hearing, one is left to conclude that it has nothing to do with his qualifications, and everything to do with the Left's power to implement its political and social agendas.
Judge Samuel Alito is exceptionally qualified for a seat on the Supreme Court. The ill-fated nomination of Harriet Miers notwithstanding, President George Bush's follow-on nomination of Judge Alito is bold and brilliant.
Stepping out on a limb here -- color us unimpressed by Sen. Chuck Schumer's warnings of a filibuster -- Judge Alito will be approved by a floor vote next Friday, or the following week if it takes a bit more finessing to get the good judge out for a floor vote. After all, back in 1987 when Ronald Reagan nominated Alito to be a U.S. District Attorney, Kennedy's vote was among the Senate's unanimous consent. And when Sam Alito was nominated for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in 1990, he again received Kennedy's vote and unanimous consent from the Senate.
So what's with all the theatrics?
First and foremost, the stage show is about political agendas, not "advice and consent" -- specifically, the Left's objection to the fact that Judge Alito is precisely what our Founders desired in a jurist -- one who will interpret the plain language of our Constitution, not amend it by way of judicial diktat, as has been the practice of Leftist judicial activists for decades. That practice has all but rendered the Judiciary, in the inimitable words of Thomas Jefferson, a "Despotic Branch."
"If confirmed," blustered Kennedy, "Alito could very well fundamentally alter the balance of the court and push it dangerously to the right." Sen. Hillary Rodham-Clinton (or is it just "Clinton" these days?) concurred: "The fate of the Supreme Court hangs in the balance." Chuck Schumer added, "Alito is a controversial nominee for a pivotal swing vote on the High Court who could shift the balance of the court, and thus the laws of the nation, for decades to come."
What balance? Just where does the Constitution specify that judges are supposed to make the laws? To borrow from its author, James Madison, we cannot undertake to lay our finger on that article of the Constitution, which states that certain Supreme Court justices are supposed to be "swing" justices.
As penned by Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist Papers, the definitive explication of our Constitution, "[T]here is not a syllable in the [Constitution] which directly empowers the national courts to construe the laws according to the spirit of the Constitution..."
To that end, Sam Alito insists, "Judges shouldn't be legislators, they shouldn't be administrators." He has demonstrated that he's a strict constructionist who supports states' rights and thinks the First Amendment restricts only Congress when it comes to the Left's sacred (read: bogus) "wall of separation" between church and state. He thinks the Second Amendment means what it says. He thinks parents know better than the government how to raise their kids. He would, we believe, return to states and local communities the decision to have prayer in their schools. He's even approved Christmas displays by local municipalities. He has certainly not found any language in our Constitution suggesting a "right" to terminate the life of children before they are born, or that husbands -- and parents in the case of minors -- should not be notified before an abortion.
Indeed, Sam Alito's philosophy will be at odds with the Left's insistence on a "Living Constitution." In the words of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, "Judge Alito has displayed a judicial philosophy marked by judicial restraint and respect for the limited role of the judiciary to interpret the law and not legislate from the bench."
More to the point, Sen. Rick Santorum declared, "The only way to restore the republic our Founders envisioned is to elevate honorable jurists like Samuel Alito." It's not just the fate of the court that hangs in the balance; it's the future of the Republic. Filling vacancies on the High Court with constitutional constructionists is not only President Bush's highest domestic priority, it will likely be recorded as his greatest domestic achievement.
In the meantime, the nation will have to endure the tirades of that bloated, bloviating blunderbuss, Ted Kennedy.
Quote of the week...
"Federal judges have the duty to interpret the Constitution and the laws faithfully and fairly, to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans, and to do these things with care and with restraint, always keeping in mind the limited role that the courts play in our constitutional system. And I pledge that if confirmed I will do everything within my power to fulfill that responsibility." --Judge Samuel Alito
Mark Alexander is executive editor and publisher of The Patriot Post, the Web's "Conservative E-Journal of
That would explain the weird practice of their electing this beached, bloviating whale to the senate every six years.
The editor of the magazine Prospect, says the piece that Kennedy read was satire!
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/012824.php
snip
Dinesh D'Souza was the editor of Prospect at the time, and he confirms that the article, by H. W. Crocker III, now an editor for Regnery Books, was a satire:
The essay may not have been funny, D'Souza acknowledges, but Kennedy read from it as if it had been serious instead of an attempt at humor.
"I think left-wing groups have been feeding Senator Kennedy snippets and he has been mindlessly reciting them," D'Souza said. "It was a satire."
Was Mary Jo Kopechne available for comment on Kennedy's remarks about Alito?
After listening to the Senior Whale from my beloved Taxachusetts badger Judge Alito about the insufficiency of 12 YEARS as a legitimate definition of "initial period" - regarding his Vanguard investments and recusals -
I called Kennedy's Washington office and - after speed-dialing the number about 20 times - finally got through to some effete twerp-sounding deskie who said,
"Oh no! The Senator was NOT going to let Alito get away with restricting 'initial period' to JUST TWELVE YEARS! NO WAY!"
So I - nasty bastard with a good memory that I am - said to this young twerp:
"But Kennedy thought that 12 HOURS was a legitimate amount of time between crashing the Oldsmobile and leaving it in the water with Mary Jo in it and reporting it to the soon-to-be-bought-off Dukes County constabulary."
He hung up.
I called back. Persevered through numerous speed-dialings. And got the twerp again. And I said,
"DO NOT EVER HANG UP on a 50-year-old-plus tax-paying, voting-in-every-election constituent, no matter HOW UNPLEASANT THE TRUTH about your THOROUGHLY DISCREDITED and MORALLY BANKRUPT boss may be."
Then I hung up.
It's the only card the Libs have left in the deck to play -- but it's worked like a charm since Roe Vs. Wade.
The REAL war will be engaged should another SC vacancy have to be filled.
The fat-faced leftist would read anything one of his many staffers would shove in front of his face.
He once read an entire menu before discovering what it actually was.
L
(In a nice way, that is.)
Perhaps on FR censor would knock off that dollar sign that the clumsy typist (me) accidentally affixed to the end of that headline.
" It not only looks like Teddy...It SMELLS like Teddy..."
I, too, am from Taxachusetts; and I grew about around these idiots that vote for Kennedy. If you aren't from around here it's impossible to explain the mindset of these ignoramouses.
"Judge Alito, do you know who I am? Please tell me because I've forgotten.
You see my father had me undergo a lobotomy years ago when he discovered that I wanted to enter politics. He told me that it would make me a better politician if I didn't have a brain."
"Would someone tell me why that person in the back is waving a sign that says "Remember Mary Jo Kopechne?" "Oh no. I've soiled my pants again."
One of the funniest things I ever saw - first hand, that is - happened at a CLINTON-KENNEDY rally here, in what the Democrats call "a richly diverse suburb" of Boston, i.e., you wouldn't believe the number of alcoholics, drug-addicts, and sex-offenders we have at our local shelters - no questions asked by anyone but us neighbors - and the number of closed factories and businesses - and the fact that it's almost impossible to find even a police officer who speaks English . . . but I digress.
Anyhow, the two fat slimes were on the steps of the town hall congratulating each other (on still being out of prison, I think) and the square was filled to capacity with said free-loaders, foreigners, and bussed in union folks, when - right next to me - a late middle aged woman held up a giant sign inscribed:
MADS: MOTHERS AGAINST DRUNK SENATORS
Within moments, two State Police officers, who were able to read English, apparently, escorted her away.
But for one brief shining moment it was my Camelot !!!!!
I recently posted a segment of the hearings which I think pretty well shows Kennedy's intellect, at the time I had to paraphrase, but after going over transcripts, I found the actual part I was referring to:
KENNEDY: And when that time was up, did you ever imagine that you would get back to the committee and said, "I believe my time is up on Vanguard"?
ALITO: Well, Senator, the nature of the question that I was responding to did not figure in the way the Monga case was handled. And I thought I made that clear yesterday.
I was following, throughout my time on the bench, the practice of going beyond the code. And had I focused on this issue when the matter came before me, I would have recused myself at this time as I later did.
But in answer to Senator Hatch's question, looking at that question today and looking at the answer, the question was: What you intend to do during your initial period of service? And I think that that's what the answer has to be read as responding to.
But just to be clear, I'm not saying that that's why this played out the way it did. I'm just saying that's how I think the question and the answer -- that's how I think the question and any response to the answer by any nominee needs to be interpreted.
KENNEDY: Well, if there's someone that can just understand what you just told us, I'd be interested in it, because I don't.
HATCH: Well, I'll be glad to explain it.
KENNEDY: Well, if...
(LAUGHTER)
An audio version would be even better, but couldn't find it.
I've been wondering if Bush might have a chance to fill one more vacancy, but the most likely scenario I can see is that Souter decides to become a cowboy after seeing 'Brokeback Mountain.'
ROTFLMAO!!!
He should quit his day job and become a full-time comedian!!
Where does he get his material??
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