Posted on 04/03/2012 7:34:45 AM PDT by Kaslin
Conservatives should not be lulled into a false sense of security by the questions asked during the Supreme Court’s oral arguments over the Affordable Care Act. But we can savor the shock and horror spreading through the ranks of the bill’s supporters, can’t we?
Let’s start of the immortal words of the famously filter-less former Speaker Nancy Pelosi when asked if the Congress had the constitutional authority to change our government and the way we live our lives in one fell swoop known as the individual mandate. She replied with a taunting "Are you serious? Are you serious?"
But last week it began to dawn deliciously on Pelosi & Co. and their associates in the mainstream media that we were indeed serious and that their pet law might be in jeopardy. Aghast constitutional scholar Chris Matthews admitted he had never before dreamed of a scenario that featured “[President Obama’s] major achievement just ripped off the books.”
The Boston Globe cited a survey of Supreme Court lawyers and former clerks taken before the debate began that gave only a 35 percent probability that the mandate forcing people to buy a product (health insurance) would be struck down. “The provocative view in Washington when oral arguments began on Monday was that the vote to uphold could be lopsided,” the newspaper noted. By Tuesday afternoon, however, this view had been supplanted by gloom.
When CNN’s senior legal correspondent Jeffrey Toobin—described by Daily Beast blogger Andrew Sullivan as appearing “increasingly depressed”—emerged from the courtroom to say, “This still looks like a train wreck for the Obama administration and it may also be a plane wreck. This entire law is now in serious trouble," the Newsroom anchor back in the studio gasped, “Oh, my goodness.”
Unable to accept that it’s the arguments, Stupid, the left is piling on unfortunate Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. who had the unenviable task of arguing the government’s case. Not a good career move.
“Sounding less like a world-class lawyer and more like a teenager giving an oral presentation for the first time, Verrilli delivered a rambling, apprehensive legal defense of liberalism’s biggest domestic accomplishment since the 1960s—and one that may well have doubled as its eulogy,” Mother Jones, the leftwing magazine, wrote.
In what must be a low point in Mr. Verrilli’s career, the White House felt it necessary to issue a pathetic statement of support Wednesday, describing the Solicitor General as “an extraordinarily talented advocate who possesses a sharp mind, keen judgment, and unquestionable integrity.” As we used to say in high school, “She’s really sweet, and she makes her own clothes.”
As the week progressed, Obamacare supporters moved from surprise and despair to developing a new meme. Nowhere was the new meme more revealingly or cynically expounded than in a column in the Washington Post by former Hillary Clinton adviser, Mark Penn, headlined “Could Defeat for Obamacare Mean Victory for Obama?”
“In the face of a Supreme Court ruling against the law, a defiant president may seek to make an even more strident case for his vision for health care in America,” Penn wrote. “Already, the talking points for a war on the high court are being put in place by organizations such as the Center for American Progress.” According to Penn, the “story line is simple” and it is that “the Supreme Court puts politics above the people in the name of the Constitution.”
Although Penn says that this argument “could play among an electorate predisposed to suspect the worst,” he ultimately rejects this as the way to go. Not because it is cynical and would tear the country apart. But merely because this tactic only gets the president his base, which he already has. Something tells me, however, that this talking point is not dead.
Despite the responses being developed in the media and places like the Center for American Progress, supporters of this law have to know that the Supreme Court’s overturning of Obamacare would be bad for the president. Or maybe not.
Regardless of the political implications, Americans have reason to be heartened by the events of this week. Perhaps only those of us inside-the-beltway types take guilty pleasure in the site of crestfallen liberal elites, but all Americans should appreciate that we have a Supreme Court that still takes the Constitution seriously.
We have a SCOTUS which takes the Constitution seriously by a 1 vote margin, which is why I will be forced to vote for Romney in November instead of sitting out the election. I’m afraid the next POTUS may be able to nominate judges to SCOTUS and I sure as hell don’t want that POTUS to be the kenyan.
I am praying that the court overturns this unconstitutional infrinement on our rights, and that Obama loses in a landslide in November.
We have a SCOTUS which takes the Constitution seriously by a 1 vote margin, which is why I will be forced to vote for Romney in November instead of sitting out the election. I’m afraid the next POTUS may be able to nominate judges to SCOTUS and I sure as hell don’t want that POTUS to be the kenyan.
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Thank you for writing this. People, including me, were upset with the big government things that W. did — prescription drug benefit, no child left behind, etc. W. was not close to being Reagan. That stated, W. gave us Alito and Roberts...and a whole host of lower court judges that respect the Constitution. Believe me, as a lawyer, I can tell you that Obama has appointed hundreds of “doozies” to the federal bench.
Be on guard! SCOTUS and the Constitution will vault to the top of their Enemies List after this.
In the book “Left Behind,“ a snake-oil salesman named Carpathian brings the World to ruin.
Dictator Baby-Doc Barack is our Carpathian as he tries to bring America to ruin.
yes I feel the same way you do. romney is far from my ideal candidate but he will be a vast improvement over the racist communist we currently have.
Oh yeah.......
Willard RMONEY McBush will appoint ROMNEYCARE judges.
BIG fat stinking improvement. Not.
I’ll vote third party, thank you very much.
Thank you for stating what should be obvious to Conservatives but I am afraid that from many comments here doesn't sink in to some people.
“Constitution!!!???? Constitution? We don’t need no stinking constitution” say the libs.
Some of the required phrasing was left out: “She’s really sweet, and she makes her own clothes. Bless her heart!
I keep hearing this, then remember the kind of judges Romney appointed in Massachusetts as governor, and feel compelled to ask, "Are you really *sure* aboiut this?"
the infowarrior
What is obvious to many of us, given Romney's track record of judicial appointments as governor of Massachusetts, is the *fact* that any SCOTUS appointent(s) he might make could very well be as bad, if not worse.
Has *that* sunk in to you yet?
the infowarrior
Say what you will about Romney, with Sotomayor and Kagan we know what a second Obama term will heave up on the beach. This Nation cannot survive any more such demented socialist moles.
Has *that* sunk in to you yet?
the infowarrior
Sunk in to me, you need to change your name to something like misinfowarrior.
If Romney is President and a Republican Congress that just isn't going to happen and I think you know this.
I will tell you this, if you and a bunch of others stay home on election day and Obama gets in you will later regret it as you understand what you have done.
And I will also tell you that whatever you and a bunch of others have to say here in the future will probably sway me more the other way than in the direction you are thinking.
Hope that sinks in to you, but I highly doubt anything can penetrate.
That is *not* a given, and you know it. We've gone through this "lesser of two evils" time and again, much to our detriment. When does it stop? Never?
the infowarrior
That is *not* a given, and you know it. We've gone through this "lesser of two evils" time and again, much to our detriment. When does it stop? Never?
the infowarrior
Either that or.......
the infowarrior
Here's what I know, your answer is a blueprint for disaster.
I'm tired of people with your attitude that if you can't have exactly what you want you will stay home and pout.
So do it, but your attitude is dangerous and I think you know that.
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