Three Way News

Your Source. For everything. Really.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Judge to Justice: Part the first

I'm sure we'll have a lot more to say about the nomination of Judge John Roberts Jr. to take Sandra Day O'Connor's seat on the Supreme Court. The American Family Association seems pleased:

Fahling explained that "as a government lawyer, Roberts could argue that Roe should be reversed, but as an appellate court judge, he held an office under the ultimate authority, by constitutional design, of the Supreme Court. He had no authority to reverse Roe as an appellate court judge, but if confirmed as a Supreme Court justice he will have that constitutional authority."

None of that bothers me at present. It's the last two paragraphs in this Pioneer Press story:

True to form, Bush didn't take the easy course in naming Roberts. Picking a woman to replace O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the court, would have been easier. And selecting someone with fewer public positions on controversial subjects, such as abortion, might have made it easier to finesse a nominationt (sic).

But that isn't Bush, at least not most of the time. Going back on his vow to pick a true conservative for the court would have been more than a political gambit; it would have been seen as a betrayal to his base.

How do we get from "It was enough for some to suggest that Judge John G. Roberts Jr. was a 'stealth nominee' whose real views on controversial issues such as abortion are unknown" to "selecting someone with fewer public positions on controversial subjects, such as abortion, might have made it easier to finesse a nomination"? Well, which is it? Stealth nominee or nominee with many public positions on controversial subjects?

Look how hard the Pioneer Press is working today to paint Bush with familiar and glowing colors. I don't know enough about Roberts yet to form a judgment on his nomination, but I do know that one can't be a "uniter, not a divider" if you fulfill the wishes of your base that are contrary to the common wishes of the majority of Americans.

3 Comments:

Everytime I bitch about the Strib I remind myself that it's still not as bad as the Pioneer Press

By Anonymous, at 11:46 AM

I have seen quite a few paper from markets about the same size as the Twin Cities and believe it or not the Strib is one of the better ones. Still not a great paper by any means, but it does have a decent comics section: Doonesbury, Dilbert, Arlo 'n Janice, Boondocks, Katherine Kersten...

By Jambo, at 4:53 PM