Wednesday, January 11, 2006

I give up

I tried. I really tried to sit through Chuck Schumer's inquisition of Alito.

I thought it was one of the most ridiculous and obnoxious performances on the part of a Senator I have ever seen and that is saying something.

All I can say is that in the off chance that a Democrat wins the White House again, the president whoever he, she or it may be had better not pick an ACLU lawyer like Ginsberg. It won't be pretty.

As for a constitutional right to abortion..well unlike Chucky I actually am a woman and in spite of that I have to admit that it is debatable as to whether there is a constitutional right to abortion. [That does not mean I think all abortion should be illegal however.]

As a matter of fact the founding fathers made a point of not talking about it. Too bad Chucky Schumer can not do the same thing.

40 comments:

buddy larsen said...

Lord, Terrye--ain't it the truth--he got so clinical, so gynophilic, I thought he was gonna sprout breasts there for awhile. Start nursing the microphone, singing "lullaby".

Unknown said...

if a woman is raped by her father and if she has the baby she can't have children anymore are you saying that you think she should never ever blah blah blah.

Can you imagine a Republican asking Ginsberg if she would want to know if her 13 year old got knocked up and had an abortion?

Doug said...

Ot, from "Glass Houses" via Mark:
"Don't know what beautiful jersey is about."
Must be some Crooked Dem's Mistress in Atlantic City! ;-)

buddy larsen said...

Speaking of beautiful, who saw Specter blow fire on Jabba Hutt today?

I saw it! It wuz bee-yoo-tee-ful!

MeaninglessHotAir said...

Can you imagine a Republican asking Ginsberg if she would want to know if her 13 year old got knocked up and had an abortion?

I'm afraid the Republicans are holding themselves to a higher standard of conduct. Apparently with the Democrats anything goes.

buddy larsen said...

yep--sez volumes for the constituency attention-level, don't it. I know that anyone who has been voting for Kennedy, Schumer, Leahy, Biden, just CAN'T have been watching them in action.

buddy larsen said...

Some thanks for a life of dedicated public service--to get grilled to pieces in total bad faith by a bunch of treacherous old ward-heelers trying to keep up the $ flow from Code Pink and George Soros.

Unknown said...

syl:

The lady did all right until someone was nice to her husband and then she started to cry.

I wonder why it is that kindness is sometimes harder to take?

Rick Ballard said...

Syl,

What right did Graham assert to apologize for his colleagues? If he hadn't decided to play Robin to McCain's Batman this wouldn't be happening.

A portion of the responsibility for this spectacle belongs to the Seven Dwarves.

Doug said...

Amen, Mr. Rick.

Doug said...

"VP Graham"

Unknown said...

Rick:

Perhaps I am missing something, but what has this got to do with Graham?

Kennedy and Schumer would be acting stupid in any event. At least Specter slapped Kennedy down. Couldn't happen to a nicer blowhard.

Nothing the seven can or would or did do is going to stop the grilling.

It is the next phase, the vote and the possibility of the nuclear option or the filibuster that has to do with the seven.

Syl said...

Yeah, what Terrye said.

Hey, I know I'm not conservative enough for you guys. I don't have the same abhorrence for Graham and Spectre that you all have.

McCain, on the other hand.

Rick Ballard said...

The Seven Dwarves constitute a group within the party that is asserting power from outside of the party structure. Its sole purpose was the aggrandizement of McCain - with Graham hanging on his coattail. McCain has no power within the caucus because he is cordially despised by anyone unfortunate enough to have anything to do with him.

Graham's leap for the spotlight today is part of his continuing effort at rehabilitating his tattered image. It was also very stupid politics. Replay the exchanges without the apology and the Dems come off as even bigger jerks.

Which brings back the question "What the hell is that pipsqueak doing apologizing for Dems?"

The answer is that he saw a change for a few seconds on camera as a figure of sympathy. He ain't on the side of the angels. he ain't a good politician and he ain't fooling me.

I have no complaint about Specter to this point in the hearings. He is exercising the chairman's duties proficiently and he is not hogging the camera. Pretty good for him, considering past behavior.

buddy larsen said...

Syl, I'm not so sure we shouldn't line up behind our partial solution pols, either. i mean, better a half loaf--tomorrow the bakery.

That said, a moral victory is when the other side has the 'actual' victory.

So...uh...something.

Unknown said...

Rick:

I am sorry but you don't know what was in Graham's mind. He might have been ashamed of the behavior of his fellow Senators and wanted to point that out.

I also think that sometimes you have to deal to get anything done. And besides when the president picked a nominee that the pundits did not like they had no problem going their own way. It seems a lot of different people think they are the ones who speak for the party.

Right now the Democrats need to have a few of their people acting outside the party structure. If their lockstep is where party discipline gets you then I think the Republicans should be glad they have some individuals in the party.

In any event, I think Mrs. Alito appreciated Graham's kind words and it is too bad that more Republicans did not do the same thing.

buddy larsen said...

It's sort of rock-scissors-paper--so long as no nuculer option, Graham looks ok, like he went along to get along, and it worked. pending....

Doug said...

"nukular"

Syl said...

The answer is that he saw a change for a few seconds on camera as a figure of sympathy. He ain't on the side of the angels. he ain't a good politician and he ain't fooling me.

Does your cynicism make you smarter or just make you feel good? I personally think this is a bit harsh.

Rick Ballard said...

Syl,

Graham is a senator because of his performance as a house manager during Clinton's impeachment. He was snookering people then and he is doing so now. He is little different than Edwards in the sense that he has a certain "cute little boy" charm which plays well with those like that sort of thing. He's also a pol in a hurry who sees the Senate as a stopoff on the way to the Oval Office.

Try and find any legislation that he has carried or work that he has actually performed.

He's a lightweight with a nose for the camera - just like McCain. His performance as a house manager was mediocre and Clinton's impeachment was not a political masterstroke.

I'm not cynical at all but I'm not going to cheer on a camera hog who can't think three steps in front of himself. The Seven Dwarves didn't just hurt Bush - they effectively stopped the advancement of the completion of the remainder of the party platform. I happen to support that platform and I'm not about to cheer on a junior idiot who puts himself above the party - or the senior idiot whose coattails he's riding.

buddy larsen said...

I think the extreme obstructionism of the Dems in general almost guaranteed the emergence of some "middle children" in both parties who by the very nature of the task--to make everyone on both sides swallow a bitter pill or two--have to try to play to the camera/public. Not that I agree with it, I just see the dynamic that way.

buddy larsen said...

On RogerSimon's 'Kennedy" post, this comment:

Teddy did succeed in getting you, Roger, to declare the alumni publication "creepy" without, I suspect, having ever read it. Teddy declares it anti-woman and anti-minority but you might want to ask two former editors of it, Laura Ingraham (a, gasp, woman!!!) and Dinesh D'Souza (an, ahem, "person of color")!!!. So maybe Tedward's smear of Judge Alito won't work but his smear of CAP sure has-- at least with you Roger.

Posted by: monkeydarts at January 12, 2006 08:14 AM

buddy larsen said...

Mark, before you plumb new depths of pathos, try to understand that 'strict constructionism' is NOT anti-liberal.

It's merely 'pro-Constitution'.

What is your problem with that?

buddy larsen said...

Some 300 opinions have come in via an open call on the ABA to evaluate his record on a technical basis, and the overwhelming response is that he is of the highest standard of judicial integrity.

You call an 'activist' someone who is NOT an activist--for 'your' ideas. IOW, unless he's a 'penumbra, living document' guy, he is an 'activist'.

You are an Orwellian language-destroyer, I'm afraid, Mark.

buddy larsen said...

He works for YOU, Mark, he's in the next room, typing away.

buddy larsen said...

Peter, he's not ever gonna bite--you oughtta go ahead and invite him over for a little para training, get him in shape for his coming election disasters.

buddy larsen said...

Yes--first you destroy the country, then the language. Then you can be a kommandant at a gulag somewhere, and finally live your dream.

buddy larsen said...

Har--i have no first hand jump story, but my dad had a doozy--he'd just put the shot-to-pieces B-17 on auto pilot and was in a hurry to get the crew bailed out while the wheel-drop was keeping the ME-110 cannon-fire abated. his navigator was sitting in the chin hatch, back to dad, legs in the slipstream, seemingly frozen. dad gave him a push to help him out--which almost worked, the guy turned as he was going out the hatch white-faced screaming (tho no one could hear weach other very well) he was still hooking his para to his harness, he was unhooked, just sitting on the para-pack. Dad lurched and grabbed him back in--nearly taking the both of 'em out. Oddly enough, I just got an email from that man's daughter, she'd seen my name on an 8th AAF memorial website from Memorial Day 2002. Small world--she runs a travel agency in...London!

buddy larsen said...

I'm trying to remember the name of dad's base--I have it lost in archives--"Far Rockingham" ring a bell?

buddy larsen said...

I remember London, when i was 7 yrs old dad took the whole fam over--he was transferred by Royal Dutch Shell to Amsterdam for six months--and a few things burned into my mind touring not the base but London proper--the rubble still about, the red double deckers, the Dinky Toys, and the number of legless or armless or facially-burned vets and ex-RAF men dad worked with in the London office of Shell.

buddy larsen said...

381st. Lt. Jack Kirby Larsen, Eagle Lake, Texas. Shot down in Feb 1944, last day of "Big Week", his 13th mission. Saved his crew. 23 yrs old at the time, flying "Mr. Five-by-Five", an old B-17E, oldest plane in the squadron, assigned to 'new' crews--who were in large supply, as 8th AAF was losing 5%/mission--and the crews needed 25 missions to rotate out--meaning for a period of time there, they were statistical goners.

buddy larsen said...

Nope--dad popped out of UT with a brand new geology degree and immediately joined up--he never did lay claim to any special patriotism, tho--just said he wasn't gonna be the only SOB around not in uniform--

buddy larsen said...

An attitude in the anglosphere that dictators just never can 'get'.

buddy larsen said...

Dad's best friend in training was Lt. George Rains of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana. They made a pact that if either of 'em survived and the other didn't, the survivor would visit the other's family after the war. There were a lot of these pacts, dad had some sorrowful visits to make after repatriation. Lt. Rains had gone down, KIA, with with most of his crew over France (I forget the district). Dad visited the family in north Louisiana after he got home (he'd been liberated by the Red Army from Barth's Stalag Luft). Well, he stuck around and married his best friend's widow, whom I later came to know as 'mom'.

buddy larsen said...

Hitler is still in everybody's sh*t--every family that got turned in some radically different direction--and all their descendants, forever.

buddy larsen said...

Amen--screaming about life in a police state is the last thing you'll hear in a police state.
But that's fine--I love it--the louder they scream the crazy talk, the more centrist the gov't will become (as, the Supreme Court is doing as we speak).

buddy larsen said...

It's like taking little kids into town. breakfast at McDonalds, lunch at chucky Cheese, a Disney movie, the game room at the mall, dinner back at Chucky Cheese, 12 hrs later dragging the whole load home, and one of 'em wakes up and wants to go 50 miles back and buy a candy bar. You say "no" and the whole lot wakes up and starts wailing at what a jerk you are.

buddy larsen said...

pre-school, post-senescence, take your pick, it's all Liberal.

buddy larsen said...

They're taking those little red "Gimme" pills.

buddy larsen said...

Those are the suppository form.