Sunday, January 08, 2006

Heartwarming Support for Alito

This is the first column by Robert Kuttner that I have ever seen. Although I know that the Boston Globe is the main effluent discharge site for the New York Times I was rather surprised by the tone and content of this piece. Previously I had been a bit lukewarm in my support of Alito's confirmation but this column provides a basis for really getting behind this nomination.

It does raise an interesting question though. Are hallucinogenic drugs sold over the counter in Massachusetts?

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rick.

Listen to me, Rick. We will help you, Rick.

I want you to walk away from the paper. Stand up, lock your hands behind your head - and walk, Rick.

Walk away from the paper, Rick.

cf said...

You could see the froth forming at the sides of his mouth as Kuttner typed this, couldn't you?

Unknown said...

Oh for heaven's sake.

Syl said...

It just shows how far left academia and the media had gone that they believe Bush is such an extremist. They and their ideas were in total control until 9/11, when their fantasies ended.

Poor dears. Bush on one side, jihadi's on the other. No wonder they're going insane.

chuck said...

I think of the people of Massachusetts as the proverbial frogs in a pot of gradually warming water. Over the years they have mostly gone crazy but remain unaware of their half boiled condition.

vnjagvet said...

The frustration level of the liberal end of the political spectrum is a sight to behold.

When an hysterical diatribe like this one is published in a "respectable" newspaper in a major metropolitan area, it is time for Dr. Sanity to do a complete workup for BDS.

Scrappleface could not have written it any better as satire.

Anonymous said...

I've reached the point where I simply can't do it. There comes a time when it is pointless,except maybe in the clinical or scientific investigative sense, to read them.

Life is short enough.

Doug said...
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Doug said...

vnjagvet,
All very true, but what is your opinion of Alito's handling of
Rule 32 ?
;-)

vnjagvet said...

Doug:

Which rule 32? FRCP, FRCRMP, FRAP or "other"?

MeaninglessHotAir said...

I met a reporter for the Globe once, right after the Democrats had "borked" Bork. He was thrilled. He could hardly contain himself. The Reagan juggernaut was over and they were going to get the Evil Ones now! For the people!

I expressed to him an entirely different worldview from the one he had espoused. That getting Bork was simply a partisan play in a long line of partisan plays on both sides. That there was nothing particular evil about the Republicans, that Bork wasn't at all what he had been painted to be by Biden etc., you get the drift. He looked at me like I was walking around explaining how I could see antimatter coming out of his aura because of the 39th prime number. He had obviously never in his life heard anyone at all dissent from the party line. And he had gone to the finest schools (Harvard) and known the finest people, so how could his worldview possibly be wrong?

It all comes down to feedback. There isn't any feedback in Massachusetts except the standard party line. They have ramped up the feedback level so high that they never hear anything anymore except the noise coming out of their own speakers.

ex-democrat said...

vn - i'm guessing doug's referring to this FRAP flap: http://www.nonpublication.com/32.1.HTML

Doug said...

Yeah, ex,
Thought I'd give it a look, and after I got to page 2 or 3 discussing 32.1g or whatever, I understood why I could never be a lawyer of any kind.

...it was one where there were 512 or so cookie cutter comments, and it was interesting to see how he handled it,
...until it wasn't.
I did like him refering to record of calamities predicted that did not occur in state courts.

Doug said...

ALITO UPDATE: The New York Times editorial on Alito draws commentary from Ann Althouse and Keith Burgess-Jackson.
My position: I think that unlike Harriet Miers, Alito is clearly qualified. He'll probably be a good justice, but he certainly isn't my personal top choice. So if I've seemed unexcited here, it's because I am. Not opposed, or anything. Just unexcited.
UPDATE: I don't think that Senator Bernie Sanders will be much of a force in the confirmation hearings. If he is, it'll be the first time something like that has happened since the Goldwater presidency . . . .
Instapundit

Anybody know why pundit is less than thrilled w/Alito?
(I'd take 3 Roberts, 3 Thomas's, and one Scalia, but we live in this world.)

flenser said...

doug

Anybody know why pundit is less than thrilled w/Alito?

If by pundit you mean Instapundit, then I expect he wants a libertarian on the bench.

Considering the way court has ruled that terrorists captured on the battlefield are entitled to all kinds of rights, I'd say the court is already too libertarian.

Rick Ballard said...

Doug,

I ain't a mind reader but Reynold's is a law professor - a thing somewhat different from a practitioner. Scholars and theorists certainly have their place and I have a rather strong opinion of where that place is located - it's not on the Supreme Court.

I lean toward the "box of chocolates" theory concerning nominations. By the time we know with certainty, it's too late. Alito may expose himself as a great jurist, impartial and indifferent in the administration of justice, basing his decisions upon precedent and showing an ability to discern and evaluate negative externalities in a manner which will minimize damage to all concerned. Let's hope so.

The next one or two picks will be more important. Let's hope the "living" Constitution nitwits blow their whole warchest opposing Alito. They're sure dumb enough to do it.

Doug said...

Rick, ot, but more stuck on stupid:
---
Liberal Media Admits BDS Drives Them
Author: AJStrata Comments
What is so interesting about the non-issue surrounding the NSA-FISA hoopla is the leftwing of the nation has finally gone over the edge - and they don’t care! They proudly announce they are ready to impeach Bush for stopping terrorists in the US by monitoring their communications with their masterminds overseas.

Joe Klein, no conservative, but also not suffering Bush Derangement Syndrome, writes in Time (no less) on how the liberal leftwing is imploding right in front of our eyes:
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat, engaged in a small but cheesy bit of deception last week...

...But clearly the program didn’t exist when Pelosi wrote the letter. When I asked the Congresswoman about this, she said, “Some in the government have accused me of confusing apples and oranges.
My response is, it’s all fruit.”
Pelosi admits she is being misleading - and obviously doesn’t care!
Klein is not impressed.
And he exposes more of her duplicity...

flenser said...

Rick

Alito may expose himself as a great jurist, impartial and indifferent in the administration of justice, basing his decisions upon precedent, etc.

I'd say Alito has already displayed these qualities, and that is why he was picked for the SC.

There is no way of knowing whether he will change once he gets there, of course. We run that risk with every nominee.

Doug said...

flenser,
Agreed.
I might be more secure with someone that's a more locked in Conservative like Thomas, but Alito's bono fides are mui bono.
(aarg)
...wish W was able to nominate Janis Rogers Brown,
then the Dems would REALLY implode!

vnjagvet said...

Doug, Ex:

The old unpublished opinion debate, huh? Pretty obscure except to you two and appellate lawyers like Howard Bashman of That's Appealing.

Some Federal Circuit Courts tried to ban the citation of unpublished opinions from appellate briefs. This pissed off the appellate litigation bar mightily, and that gang wanted a change.

One of my best lawyer buddies and a lawschool classmate, Bill Hangley, had the best comment I have seen in his testimony before the committee considering an amendment to FRAP 32 specifically allowing citation:

"... lawyers must be
free to cite [unpublished] opinions when they consider them persuasive, just as
they are free to cite fiction, doggerel, beer commercials and stand-up comedians when
they consider those “precedents” persuasive."

Doug said...

Roberts and Alito are like
John Paul and Pope Benedict!

Doug said...

vnjagvet,
LOL. Works for me!

Doug said...

Stand up philosophy 101:

Mr. Lebewohl said that if he had to close the deli for good, so be it.
"This is life," he said. "Life goes on."

Jackie Mason, however, questioned whether it would be worth living.

"If the pastrami sandwich goes down the drain," he said, "there's no hope for this country at all."

vnjagvet said...

I am taking bets on two questions:

1. At the end of the hearings who will have the five highest a--h--- quotient among the questioning Senators?

2. Will Judge Alito come close in a--h--- quotient to any of those top five vote getters?

If the answer to 2 is no, he will be confirmed.

Not too big on the legal analysis, I know, but I think it is a good predictor for layman and lawyer alike.

Doug said...
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Doug said...

Schumer, Leahy, Kennedy are shoe ins.
2. No.
---
"For many Republicans, the charge that Judge Alito will prove a dangerous
"radical in robes"
(as University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein has warned) dovetails with the charge that they themselves--the governing party, after all, at both the national and state level--are dangerous radicals.

Just as Brandeis's views were the mainstream views of the early 20th century's progressive Democrats, Judge Alito's views are, so far as they can tell, within the mainstream of views about the meaning of the Constitution long since held by Republicans"
Opinion Journal
...he's on the right side of NSA flap, at least.

Doug said...

Wow,
Russert really smacked down Schumer,
and some gal on another Ingraham soundbyte brought up CHAPPAQUIDICK when the host played a Kennedy soundbyte.
...and even Jane Harman is in total meltdown mode over NSA.
---
Meanwhile active Army is on full assault on Murtah the Marine "disgrace."
Go Army!
(Murtha had checked out of the town hall meeting! ...had to go home.
NOT in Victory!)

Doug said...

The Offensive Continues:

Bloggers in the house
Matt Margolis, Blogs for BushMark Noonan, GOP BloggersFlip Pidot, Suitably FlipIan Schwartz, The Political TeenTim Chapman, Townhall.comMary Katherine Ham, HughHewitt.comEd Morrissey, Captain's QuartersBob Hahn, RedStatePat Cleary,
- Malkin
---
Bring on the Nuke Option!

ex-democrat said...

doug - i know how you feel. doug/vnj - ironic, isn't it, that judge kosinski of all people should be defending the exclusion of unpublished opinions given his own penchant for broad citation - as shown, for example, in this famous (dissenting) opinion: http://notabug.com/kozinski/whitedissent