Posted on 07/01/2005 4:47:59 PM PDT by churchillbuff
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: To Indianapolis. Mary Jean, welcome to the program. Nice to have us with us.
CALLER: Rush, it's such an honor. Thank you for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: First person I thought of when I heard Justice O'Connor was retiring was John McCain and his comments on Meet the Press a couple weeks ago. He basically said, "Tim, with all due with respect it isn't going to be 55 Republicans and 45 Democrats. It's going to be 14 senators that decide this."
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And it made me sick. And I want to just tell you that I called Senator Lugar's office this morning, that this is the line in the sand as far as I'm concerned, and if they can't act like winners, I'm through supporting them.
RUSH: Well wait a minute --
CALLER: I'm telling you--
RUSH: Hold up! (Laughing) They haven't done anything yet.
CALLER: I know, I know --
RUSH: The president hasn't named a nominee. Cookie, roll the tape because there's Teddy Kennedy here responding to O'Connor's retirement. I'm not going to have time to read the closed-captioning while he speaks about it. Obviously he goes first because he wants to get to happy hour first here over the Fourth of July weekend, so Ted Kennedy first Democrat out of the box. But Mary Jane, look, I know what you're talking about. The gang of 14 said that part of their deal was the president had to discuss the nomination of Supreme Court justices with them. Remember that? President Bush said, "Oh, yeah, we'll talk about it with them." But they said we're going to be in there, and the president has vowed to work with us, and da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And that is offensive as it can be. That's not in the Constitution, and the president doesn't have to meet with the Senate and give them a list of names that they approve of before nominating anybody. I don't think the president's going to nominate anybody before he gets back from the G8 trip, that won't be till July 7th or 8th, so we're going to have a week of this breathlessness (breathing). I'm glad next week is a short week. They're already talking about canceling the August recess because Bush wants the nominee confirmed by October, which is when the next session of the Supreme Court will begin.
So before we start ripping into Republicans here, let's wait 'til they do something wrong. No, I don't think he ought to wait 'til August. I think he ought to nominate somebody this afternoon. I think he ought to nominate Janice Rogers Brown this afternoon. Just get started with this. Just nominate somebody. I mean, he's all, "We're going to be thinking about this and I'm not going to announce the results of my thinking until I get back from the G8 summit." Look, it's no big surprise, the White House, everybody's been waiting for a resignation here for how many years? Everybody knew, when it got down to this point, that it was either going to be Rehnquist or O'Connor. You know another thing I would say just to tweak the left -- you know how we love to tweak the left here -- who was the last Supreme Court justice confirmed? Anybody want to take a stab? Ruth Buzzi Ginsburg. So the president or his people could say, "Our job is to balance the most recently confirmed Supreme Court justice and that is Ruth Bader Ginsburg who is so far out on the left edge of the earth she's about to fall off of it." I'd try to give Ralph Neas a heart attack, you know, I'd try to give the ACLU and the People for the American Way, you know, send them over to the FDA to do human testing on heart medicine or something. I wouldn't wait. This is why I'm not an elected official, folks, I'm sure I don't understand the temperament necessary here and I'm sure I don't understand the collegial thought process required. And, of course, the G8 summit must take place. Oh, and speaking of the G8 summit, that's why all these wacko global warming stories are out this week, and also one in six people in the world -- I'm going to have to double-check this in the stack -- but one in six citizens of the world are hungry every day, world hunger, big problem, all of this stuff going in the G8 meeting. He does have to do that first.
And I respectfully disagree with you.
True, Brown was a state supreme court justice, but where do you think most of the appeals come from that reach the federal appellate courts? The state.
She is uniquely qualified to hear state-oriented cases. She would be fantastic.
Any of those are fine with me.
The thing that irritates me about Rush--even though I do love him on the broad themes--is that he will make such an easy to check mistake such as saying that the last justice confirmed was Ginsburg {August, 1993), when in fact, the last confirmed was Breyer {August 1994. } Having the responsibility of adressing 20 million people daily should mean that you check a fact --especially when it is relied upon for his pont, and he has a staff.
On the other hand, Brown has passed the "extraordinary circumstances" test.
As I recall, I once did a survey of U.S. Supreme Court justices -- occupation right before nomination fell almost equally in 5 groups:
1. Politics (most recently Hugo Black, Earl Warren)
2. Executive Branch (Douglas, Rehnquist)
3. Private attorney (Powell)
4. State court
5. Federal court
In recent years there has been a shift to #5. O'Connor was the only remaining one with any political experience at all.
Sounds really good to me...just watched him on H & C's...OMG...I love him. ;o) He's one who really really gets it....
I agree!
Since Ginsberg is ACLU, nominate someone from Right to Life!
Do the (R)'s have the collective guts to do it?
"I'd suggest Ann Coulter, Olsen or Bork, in that order."
Not Ann! Her weekly column might have to go into receivership, or a blind trust!
Janice Rogers Brown Quotes and two speeches:
http://www.neoperspectives.com/janicerogersbrown.htm
Let's compare her to Reagan:
Man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.
- Ronald Reagan
Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible.
- CA Justice Janice Rogers Brown
Believe me, you cannot create a desert, hand a person a cup of water, and call that compassion. You cannot pour billions of dollars into make-work jobs while destroying the economy that supports them and call that opportunity. And you cannot build up years of dependence on government and dare call that hope.
- Ronald Reagan
Where government advances - and it advances relentlessly - freedom is imperiled, community impoverished, religion marginalized and civilization itself jeopardized.
- CA Justice Janice Rogers Brown
Today we are told we must choose between a left and right or, as others suggest, a third alternative, a kind of safe middle ground. I suggest to you there is no left or right, only an up or down. Up to the maximum of individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism; and regardless of their humanitarian purpose those who would sacrifice freedom for security have, whether they know it or not, chosen this downward path. Plutarch warned, “The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations, and benefits.”
- Ronald Reagan
We no longer find slavery abhorrent. We embrace it. We demand more. Big government is not just the opiate of the masses. It is the opiate. The drug of choice for multinational corporations and single moms; for regulated industries and rugged Midwestern farmers and militant senior citizens.
- CA Justice Janice Rogers Brown
My personal pick is Judge Brown...first and foremost, a women and she's black...now that's another first kinda like Condi Rice.
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JRB would be my first pick if she were a white man. Who else says things like she does?
I agree with you and second your comment about why she would be qualified to be on SCOTUS.
"True, Brown was a state supreme court justice, but where do you think most of the appeals come from that reach the federal appellate courts? The state."
Excuse me? I can only assume you are not an attorney (I am).
Appeals to federal courts come primarily from federal district (trial) courts, as well as bankruptcy courts, tax courts, and immigration courts. NO cases brought in state court are appealed to the federal appellate courts.
If the gang of 14 want to hold up the process let them, right up through mid-term elections!
Another thing is that people have the recent example of liberal judgment in the eminent domain case. That one got through to a lot of people and they are dismayed and angry.
Show them the liberal judges and senators that are to blame and stand back.
Excuse me? - - decisions from state appellate courts, when they involve federal law or federal constitutional questions, can be appealed to the US Supreme Court. Many landmark US Supreme Court decisions have been in cases that came up from state courts, not from federal circuit courts. Janice Brown's caseload on the California Supreme Court has given her plenty of experience with issues of federal constitutional law. If you're really an attorney, do a Lexis search of her opinions, and the constitutional issues involved, and see for yourself.
ping!
You must have worked for a backwater court somewhere. Many of Janice Brown's key most celebrated opinions (or dissents) on the California Supreme Court involve issues of Federal Constitutional rights (First Amendment and Fifth Amendment in particular) in addition to matters of state law. You really ought to learn a bit more about law before trying to pass yourself off as some kind of authority.
Oh, and Souter was on the 1st US Circuit when he was nominated (He'd been on the New Hampshire Supreme Court previously) Federal court background certainly didn't make him a reliable Supreme Court nominee.
*LOL* But that'd mean the leftist--I mean, "moderate"-- (R)'s would be forced for a time to pretend they like Dr. Keyes, at which they would be utterly miserable, in more ways than one. :-)
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