Posted on 01/30/2007 6:33:42 PM PST by TradicalRC
Forgotten Strippers
by William J. Quirk
In 1994, the Republicans, for the first time in 40 years, took control of both Houses of Congress. In 2000, after some controversy, the GOP secured the presidency. Now, they have lost both houses and look to be well on their way to losing the presidency in 2008. Parties lose when they dont give their supporters what they want. And, while the Iraq quagmire would probably have brought the Republicans down anyway, they could have come a lot closer to retaining some of their seats if they had kept their base happy.
The funny part is that their supporters were very clear about what they wanted, and it would have been easy for the party to give it to them.
They wanted an end to the culture created, over the last 50 years, by activist judges. Our culture has been formed by judge-made rules handed down by the Supreme Court and the state courts. No legislature would have done what they did. No legislature would have removed prayer from public schools and crèches from the town square at Christmas; found a constitutional right to sodomize; protected pornographers and flag burners; facilitated unlimited abortion; upheld affirmative action; interfered with school discipline; and created an infinite number of new rights for criminals. The result is a vulgar mess. The Republicans supportersand lots of Democratshate it. Is there an easy way to end it?
Article III of the Constitution gives the people the choice: A simple law passed by Congress and signed by the President can removeor, in the parlance, stripany class of case from the Supreme Courts jurisdiction. That means the Court cannot lawfully interfere with the issue anymore. The stripped issues go to the states to be decided by their legislatures or courts. If the people in Wisconsin want prayer back in the schools, its back. The same goes for gay marriage, abortion, pornography, and the rest of the culture-war issues. Over time, the people would recover their culture. The Republicans had the opportunity to deliver a prize beyond price. They just had to grasp it.
Instead, the Bush administration supported strippers to keep the courts out of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib but not to stop their cultural incursions. The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 stripped the courts of the power to hear Guantanamo cases. The Supreme Court, however, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006) ruled the stripper did not apply to cases already pending. Since almost every Guantanamo detainee was part of a class action, the Bush administration passed the Military Commission Act stripper, this time saying we really mean it by specifying that it applied to pending cases. The Military Commission Act of 2006, signed on October 17, 2006, strips American courts of the power to hear any case brought by anyone designated by the President as an enemy combatant.
But the Bush administration would not support strippers to restore a civil culture. Even after the House of Representatives passed a gay marriage stripper (2004) and two Pledge of Allegiance strippers (2004 and 2006), the Bush administration would not support them. None of the House-passed strippers were introduced in the Senate.
Why didnt the Republicans give their supporters what they wanted and end the judge-made culture? The Republicans refused because they are convinced that court bashing is a successful campaign issue. After all, it had won elections for them since 1968. They preferred the issue to the solution. They have lost their souls.
The Democrats, if they get the White House in 2008, will have the power to pass some strippers themselves. Will they? At first glance, that seems about as likely as Bin Laden converting to Catholicism. Democrats opposed the Military Commission and Detainee Treatment Act strippers and the House gay marriage and Pledge of Allegiance strippers, so one might expect them to continue opposing such actions. Indeed, on the House floor, they called strippers unconstitutional, immoral, discriminatory, and dangerous nonsense. They have argued for the last 50 years that the Supreme Court is the ultimate arbiter of what the Constitution means. Indeed, they have obtained better results from the Court than they ever could have hoped to get from an accountable body. They opposed strippers intended to end school busing in 1972. They opposed strippers to restore school prayer in 1979, 1982, and 1985, although polling data consistently reports that around 75 percent of Americans support prayer in public schools.
The Democrats, however, may surprise us. They might do some selective strippinglike rolling back some of the Presidents civil-rights intrusions. To do so would be popular with their base and with some conservatives who believe that, thanks to such measures as the Bush administrations USA PATRIOT Act, we are losing our liberties. Historically, Democrats have not hesitated to use strippers: FDR, early in his presidency, signed the Norris-Laguardia Act (1934), which stripped federal courts of the power to issue injunctions in labor disputes. Will they try to repeal the Guantanamo strippers? Probably not. When they are responsible for conducting the war, they wont desire judicial interference any more than the Republicans do.
Sen. Charles Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, intends to make the Democrats a majority party again: We must make sure the middle class has a strong voice in Washington. Trouble is, November 7 exit polls showed Democrats are the party of extremes: in wealth, income, and education. For example, they ran strongest with high-school dropouts and those with graduate degrees. They have a definite problem with ordinary people. And, of course, religious people. Why not pick up the ball the Republicans dropped and pass a school-prayer stripper? It would greatly discomfit the Republicans. The middle class would like it. It would be a start.
William J. Quirk
This article first appeared in the January 2007 issue of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture.
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307339195
I am reading the book listed below
The Tyranny of Tolerance
A Sitting Judge Breaks the Code of Silence to Expose the Liberal Judicial Assault
Written by Robert H. Dierker, Jr.
ISBN: 978-0-307-33919-5 (0-307-33919-X)
Also available as an eBook.
Published by Crown Forum
ABOUT THIS BOOK
For the first time, a sitting judge blows the whistle on Americas out-of-control courts.
A judge for more than twenty years, Robert Dierker has enjoyed a distinguished legal career.
But now that career may be on the line.
Why?
Because he is breaking the code of silence that has long kept judges from speaking out to present a withering account of how radical liberals run roughshod over the Constitution, waging war on the laws of nature, the laws of reason, and the law of God.
Even those outraged by Americas courts will be shocked by Judge Dierkers story of activist judges, deep-pocketed special interest groups, pandering politicians, and others who claim to stand for tolerance, equal rights, and social justice, but actually stand for something quite differentsomething closer to totalitarianism.
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Misleading title of the day!
Yeah Yeah Yeah put your tool back in the box big boy....
No, that is highly doubtful.
If the Republican Congress and Presidential Administration had
(1) Immediately taken measures to nullify the Supreme Court's ridiculous "Eminent Domain" decision,They would have pleased their base support and kept it sufficiently loyal and pleased enough swing voters to increase the Republican Congressional majority in 2006 and assure a Republican Congressional majority and Presidency in 2008.(2) Closed the Mexican Border and stopped illegal immigration, and
(3) Stopped runaway federal government expansion and spending (notably not increased entitlements to include prescription drugs),
The Administration's foreign policy, including the war in Iraq, did not alienate the Republican base support or enough swing voters to cost the Republicans Congress in 2006.
The relentless Leftist and anti-American propaganda, including cynical, reckless, dangerous, and obviously politically motivated criticism of President Bush and his foreign policy, ubiquitous in the mainstream newsmedia, Hollywood, academia, and throughout Leftist America, was understood by most Americans for what it was, and it, in fact, strengthened the resolve of the base and many swing voters. Had the Republicans' domestic policies not failed these people and their expectations, their resolve and support would have been sufficient to retain a Republican majority in Congress in 2006 AND 2008!
Sounds nice, but not true.
Section 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority;--to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls;--to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction;--to controversies to which the United States shall be a party;--to controversies between two or more states;--between a state and citizens of another state;--between citizens of different states;--between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects.
Jurisdiction is Constitutional, not statutory.
What the Congress could do is strip jurisdiction from (or even abolish) federal trial courts. The Supremes could still sit in judgment on appeals from state courts in matters set out, and sit as a trial court in cases involving forign diplomats or states.
You're right, everything over there is running smooth as silk; never mind that we've been there longer than we were in WWII.
I fully agree with your three points regarding the domestic agenda, however I think you'd have to be a Bushbot NOT to realize that we've been in Iraq far too long, there were in fact, NO WMDs, there seems to be No exit strategy or objective point where we can leave. Just because the left says it doesn't mean it's untrue. They have a point, they make it badly and their motives are pure evil.
The international situation since 9/11 (and before too, though we did not know it) has been extremely difficult. Iraq is part of it.
To negotiate this situation successfully and for the U.S.A. to prevail over its enemies will require immense resolve, intense focus, and all the resources that our highly puissant nation can provide.
Rather than bring these resources together for the use of President Bush and the Republican Congress for the good of the United States and the American people, the Democrat Party and its supporters in the Mainstream Newsmedia, Congress, and Leftist America have done everything within their power to sabotage the efforts of the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress to keep the U.S. and her people safe.
They did this for political power. They would stop at nothing to discredit the Republicans and to seize power for themselves. Endangering the American people, the U.S.A., or American military personnel is of no consideration to these people in their greed for and determination to seize power.
This is obvious, and millions of Americans are aware of it.
The war in Iraq is not an issue sufficient to have thrown the republicans out of power. It is the failed Republican domestic agenda and their astonishing political foolishness that cost Republicans the Congressional majority in 2006 and may well cost them Congress and the Presidency in 2008, and no single event could be worse for the United States and the American people--or, for that metter, the people of the world.
Rather than bring these resources together for the use of President Bush and the Republican Congress for the good of the United States and the American people, the Democrat Party and its supporters in the Mainstream Newsmedia, Congress, and Leftist America have done everything within their power to sabotage the efforts of the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress to keep the U.S. and her people safe.
Considering that we're fighting the "war on terror" and it has largely consisted of American citizens having to get a proctological exam at the airport while our porous borders allow millions of illegals easy access, I'd say Bush and the Republicans are as much to blame as the malevolent left.
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