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Jul. 20th, 2005
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Jul. 20th, 2005 04:19 pmmy friends on the other side of the aisle, as it were, will be quick to accuse me of being partisan in my opposition of hon judge john roberts' nomination today to scotus. "you just can't get behind anything [president george w.] bush does, can you, chris?"
of course, i'd like to give judge roberts the benefit of the doubt, but its become clear to me that, especially given the timing and the nature of the nominee, a dark horse without a paper trail of opinions from the bench, i am going to have to stick to "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice.."
here's why the timing stinks: the splitscreen echo-chamber and op-ed writers all agreed on one immutable fact several weeks ago when it became clear that one, and now possibly two seats will open up after this season -- that in order to prevent a protracted vetting period for the minority to mount a viable opposition to whomever potus was to nominate, the majority would employ a series of calculated delay tactics in order to effect a expidited confirmation process (the delay tactics having several prongs or stages, including counter-opposition PR and using pundits like the whip or the rnc chair or whomever to leak possible candidates).
now we see an early announcement of a hard-to-vet candidate and my view is that we are supposed to feel that because there will be an extended discovery and vetting phase some form of ideological compromise had to be reached when weeding out the short list if there was any hope to forestall the inevitable minority lead filibuster come confirmation time. but what we've seen time and again from bush is a pathological inability to be flexible; the upshot is that george bush knows everything we, the public, don't know about the nominee and you can bet on if he's up for scotus he is right out of the scalia/thomas mold, if not some younger, scarier yet-unknown version of "constructionist" zealot.
and of course the reason the delay tactics have been, well, delayed or abandoned is because the tactic's creator, white house deputy chief of staff karl rove, is himself wanting the press to have something else to talk about than what he did or didn't say to matthew cooper and others, and when, and whether it was a crime. now, i know its a crime, and it borders on treason what rove did, and that he put lives of americans and sources and methods in jeopardy; but i know rove knows that truth is not immutable and will slither out of this unscathed and with the full backing of his man in office. but what rove must now be worried about is the mid-terms and the impact that the recent revelations about press manipulation from the highest levels of the government will have on the midterms. its heating up to be a very exciting pre-midterm season, folks, stay tuned.
of course, i'd like to give judge roberts the benefit of the doubt, but its become clear to me that, especially given the timing and the nature of the nominee, a dark horse without a paper trail of opinions from the bench, i am going to have to stick to "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice.."
here's why the timing stinks: the splitscreen echo-chamber and op-ed writers all agreed on one immutable fact several weeks ago when it became clear that one, and now possibly two seats will open up after this season -- that in order to prevent a protracted vetting period for the minority to mount a viable opposition to whomever potus was to nominate, the majority would employ a series of calculated delay tactics in order to effect a expidited confirmation process (the delay tactics having several prongs or stages, including counter-opposition PR and using pundits like the whip or the rnc chair or whomever to leak possible candidates).
now we see an early announcement of a hard-to-vet candidate and my view is that we are supposed to feel that because there will be an extended discovery and vetting phase some form of ideological compromise had to be reached when weeding out the short list if there was any hope to forestall the inevitable minority lead filibuster come confirmation time. but what we've seen time and again from bush is a pathological inability to be flexible; the upshot is that george bush knows everything we, the public, don't know about the nominee and you can bet on if he's up for scotus he is right out of the scalia/thomas mold, if not some younger, scarier yet-unknown version of "constructionist" zealot.
and of course the reason the delay tactics have been, well, delayed or abandoned is because the tactic's creator, white house deputy chief of staff karl rove, is himself wanting the press to have something else to talk about than what he did or didn't say to matthew cooper and others, and when, and whether it was a crime. now, i know its a crime, and it borders on treason what rove did, and that he put lives of americans and sources and methods in jeopardy; but i know rove knows that truth is not immutable and will slither out of this unscathed and with the full backing of his man in office. but what rove must now be worried about is the mid-terms and the impact that the recent revelations about press manipulation from the highest levels of the government will have on the midterms. its heating up to be a very exciting pre-midterm season, folks, stay tuned.