I hope everyone on the left remembers this confirmation fight. Because I guarantee that those of us on the right will.
We provided a recent example to the Democratic Party on how confirmations were supposed to take place. During President Clinton's (a man the right despised at least as much as the left despises Pres. Bush) term of office he appointed two Justices, and both confirmations were handled respectfully by the Republicans. (Even though it would have been easy to filibuster both of them.) Remember this is after the disgraceful actions of the Democratic Party in regards to Judge Bork and Justice Thomas. We had every reason to extract a measure of revenge, but instead did the mature thing.
Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsberg was a lawyer for the ACLU, and clearly a far-left Liberal. However she was confirmed with a 97-3 vote.
Justice Breyer was confirmed with a 87-9 vote.
Even though the Republican Party opposes the liberal and activist philosophies of these two Justices, Republicans recognized that President Clinton had won the election (and it must be noted won with less than 50% of the vote) and had the right to appoint the Justices he wanted. It would have been extremely easy to justify a filibuster on Justice Bader-Ginsberg by using her work for the ACLU, or even on the grounds that President Clinton had not won a majority, and thus should appoint someone more mainstream. (Remember at the beginning of the hearings when the left was telling evetyone that President Bush should appoint someone more mainstream, even though he had won election by a majority?) However, the Republicans acted maturely and responsibly, and confirmed President Clinton's appointees.
Now we have this infantile and emotional display from the left. It will not be forgotten. One day by some miracle the left might win the presidency again. And that president might have the opportunity to appoint a Supreme Court Justice.
Tell me truly, how do you expect the Republican Party to act then? You can treat us with disrespect and contempt for only so long before we will respond in kind.
6 comments:
Howdy,
I like your blog colors -- I chose the same. Anyway, the reason I have stopped by is to give you a link to the proposed filibuster agenda -- ther3 are great reasons to discuss these issues.
Any way, tell your friends about the plan -- and let them know these are the issues the RNC doesn't want to talk about -- that is why they are taking down the information off the web.
The RNC is doing the same with the filibuster as they did with the Iraq WMD and Patriot Act -- shutting down the debate. But there are great reasons to discuss -- to find answers, and encoaurge the RNC to explain themselves: Why are they afraid of discussing the issues in the plan?
Well, Monday isn't over -- and I am the author of this quote -- maybe you can join me in spreading the information about the link/filibuster plan -- there's a great case to be made, and some tough questions the RNC needs to respond to.
Good luck!
Apparently the above commentor is merely spamming blogs that are posting about the confirmation. If he had read my post he would have known that I am diametrically opposed to his point of view and have no interest in promulgating it.
If 50 Republican Senators vote for him, by definition he can't be out of the mainstream. That is the point. Republicans get to decide what is mainstream for Conservatives, and Democrats get to decide what is mainstream for Liberals.
Don't look now, but it's your side that is threatening Senators...especially Democratic ones. Go read what people are saying about the Democratic Senators who voted for cloture on Daily Kos, the Democratic Underground and Atrios.
I would also add that when Ginsberg replaced White, no one whined about "tilting the court to the left".
GS--You're missing the point. Whether or not Republicans thought shifting the balance of the Court was a terrible thing didn't matter. What mattered was, Pres. Clinton won the election and had the right to appoint qualified liberals.
All we want is the right to appoint conservatives when we win the presidency. The ABA, hardly a Republican or conservative organization said both Roberts and Alito were highly qualified.
I will warn you again...think twice before you decide that political ideology is determinent. It will come back to haunt you.
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