Rush started by explaining his comment from earlier this week that this was a pick from weakness. I believe everybody has heard this before and he made newer, more insightful comments so I won't dwell on his early comments too much other than to summarize them by stating that he believes that there are so many other slam dunk candidates that Bush could have picked, JRB, Luttig, Jones, etc.., who would have brought the debate over filibusters and ideologies and where this country should be heading that nominating Miers was a disappointment.
He then went on to explain that we have to change not just the makeup of the court but the culture, and he advocated continuing to take the fight to the democrats because it will expose them for who they are. Greta clearly seemed stuck on the fact that 7 of the 9 were appointed by Republicans and were "Republican judges" themselves. Rush began to explain why the culture had to be changed and brought up citing foreign precedent as a danger. Greta queried whether Kennedy, a Republican appointee, started that whole notion, and Rush emphatically stated, again, that this is exactly why the culture has to be changed, and why it will take a rock-ribbed conservative to put the ideology discussion before the country to show the democrats, who always get away with coming off as something other than what they really are, as what they really are and what they really stand for. He wants the American people to see these fine jurists and show the country how the democrats villify them.
Perhaps his best line of the night was when he observed that Steven Breyer was on George Steph's show on Sunday hawking some book and trying to sell the idea that the Constitution cannot be interpreted in an originalist manner because we now have things that the founding fathers could not have imagined, like automobiles and the internet. Rush was outraged by this position, and he explained that the founding fathers put the constitutional amendment process in place precisely for the purpose of adapting to changing circumstances, and that WE THE PEOPLE should not be read into WE THE JUDGES for the sake of the convenience of people like Breyer to tell the rest of us what the law is based on his own notion of what our public policy should be. Rush even said that Breyer would go to Mars to find law if he could. I laughed but he's absolutely right. Where exactly would Breyer go and where would he stop? Nobody knows for sure, but its clearly somewhere far outside American jurisprudence and that is very, very dangerous.
In sum Rush is not passing judgment on Miers as a nominee. However, he vies her nomination as a missed opportunity to really put the debate over the SCOTUS before the people, by putting into place the fight that the democrats have threatened, and to change the culture of the court by bringing pressure from outside and influence from within. He believes that its a fight worth fighting, and he's confident we'd win, again. By not picking that fight, he believes conservatives will suffer in 06 but its too early to tell in 08.
I thought he was as sharp as he's ever been, and I agreed with every word.
Not only dangerous but extremely frightening. How is this guy a SCJ? What Bryer said about original intent is so absurd, it borders on lunacy. It's amazing to me that a SCJ can publicly admit that he can't do the very thing he is put there to do, and we are not demanding that he be blown from his chair.
Aye, the old El Rushbo is back. Got his mind right.
Thanks, Rush does raise excellent points.
I also wonder if some of the outrage on the right would be less if Pres. Bush appeared to be actively or reactively taking action on some of our pressing needs beyond Iraq. More public visibility proposing things such as more drilling, refineries, etc., and a morning news conference doesn't cut it (no one but the political junkies see that so it gets spun or lost in the media filter.) But with near silence or ineffective PR on issue after issue for months now, one sometimes gets the sense that the admin is sleepwalking. Yes, Iraq and judicial appointments are not easy things to deal with, but the admin can and does walk and chew gum at the same time. However they do an extremely poor job of communicating that.
"I thought he was as sharp as he's ever been, and I agreed with every word."
Agreed. My only complaint was that he implied conservatives were more interested in using the SCOTUS confirmation hearings to have a national debate. I can see that, but its not our primary motivation.