Posted on 11/04/2006 5:00:12 PM PST by Clintonfatigued
For weeks, commentators have speculated that significant numbers of conservatives, alienated by over-spending, the Iraq War, and other perceived GOP disappointments, will stay home on Election Day, giving one or both Houses of Congress to Democrats. But for those who care about reforming the Supreme Court, sitting this one out may soon look like a mistake of historic proportions.
For the past several weeks, there has been a rumor circulating among high-level officials in Washington, D.C., that a member of the U.S. Supreme Court has received grave medical news and will announce his or her retirement by year’s end. While such rumors are not unusual in the nation’s capital, this one comes from credible sources. Additionally, a less credible but still noteworthy post last week at the liberal Democratic Underground blog says, “Send your good vibes to Justice Stevens. I just got off the phone with a friend of his family and right now he is very ill and at 86 years old that is not good.”
Normally, this news might be too ghoulish to repeat publicly. Nevertheless, with the election just days away, it is news that should be considered. It points out what could be a once-in-a-lifetime chance for the 20-year movement to recast the court with a constitutionalist majority. It would be a cruel twist indeed for conservatives to “teach Republicans a lesson” next Tuesday, only to be taught a lesson themselves within months when new Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D.-Vt.) leads a Democratic majority against the most important Supreme Court nominee in decades. Conservatives whose mantra is “no more Souters” should bear in mind Robert Bork’s fate after the Senate changed from Republican to Democratic hands in 1986.
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
Thanks for the ping.
Yes, Conservatives must get off the butts and go to the polls. Keep Congress Republican even if we are not crazy about them (as I am not crazy about many). At least it will give Conservatives some time to figure out what to do next, before Democrats have a chance turn us into mindless dhimmi socialists.
If Bush is able to give the nation a Constitutionalist Supreme Court, he will have achieved greatness even though his record on other issues (domestic spending, immigration) is far from ideal.
Does anyone know if Janice Rogers Brown is Catholic? That would be yet another reason for the moonbats to go ballistic and say things which would hopefully wake up the remaining Catholics clinging to the DemocRAT party line.
Don't know but I think we were all enjoying it more in jest. If posts are accurate she is not interested in the war no matter her religious affiliation.
But we all wish her a healthy and long successful career.
same, Janice Robert Brown for SCOTUS!!!!!!!
We need well known and consistant anti-government libertarian on the highest court
I really hope that she will reconsider. When I saw her on the C-Span hearings, I thought she was dynamite. She doesn't appear to me as a lady who would shrink from a fight. She is bright as well as polite-- far more polite than those committee scumbags deserve.
This is the 3rd source I have read about Stevens retiring because of ill health. And he is 86 years of age.
Yep, conservatives better get to the polls and vote for Republicans, so we can take back our courts.
To me, second only to the WOT, this is the most important reason to vote.
Well, why not? It worked so well for them politically in 2000. And 2002. And 2004... /sarc
Seriously, you're right - they will try to stonewall any nomination, but not because they feel it is a political winner. They know full well that, as long as W sticks to his guns and does not flinch in nominating (and standing behind) a strict constructionist, it is a political loser for them.
However, the SC is their last toehold in keeping baby murder legal, so they will try everything - and I do mean everything - to forestall the inevitable.
You speculate. Let's say that the current President Bush has to deal with a rabidly Rat Senate after this election, heaven forbid. Stevens croaks, he has to make an appointment. He tries a solid conservative, gets batted down. So---he finds a moderate, but a much older one, hoping that maybe in five or ten years his party gets control of the Senate again.
Hopefully, future Republican Presidents will have learned from Ford's mistake and act accordingly.
Yeah, that is what I would do if I were the President. Let's hope Karl Rove advise him on that, shall Democrats control the Senate. (Actually, I doubt that they will actually take over, but it will probably be a de facto Democratic Senate with 49 Senators plus a few RINOs that we can't seem to shake)
In that case, I expect Stevens and Ginsburg to hold on for two years, even if it takes life support. They would clearly take it as a sign that a Rat president were in the very near future, if the Rats control the Senate.
Expect any day now Scalia to suggest her vote be yanked for sleeping during arguments.
He would NEVER do that. They have the closest relationship on the court. They went to Africa together and all. Never will happen. Scalia "loves" her. They just disagree on politics.
Ditto..
I've heard this rumor before. He is so very old and hasn't retired yet. I bet he's determined to stay in that chair until they scrape him out...
She looks great in black indeed. "Associate Justice Janice Rogers Brown" sounds wonderful too. She had the title before (California SC); she deserves it again.
Ginzburg stepping on a banana peel--it's an appealing thought.
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