The Importance of Demeanor
It's clear that Democrats are going to try to trot out terrible accusations and meritless smears in an effort to defeat Judge Alito.
What's worth pointing out (and frequently) is how predictable their M.O. has become. As Kate O'Beirne noted yesterday on yesterday's Meet the Press, the Democrats were going over the hyperbolic top about David Souter. Here's a question for our liberal friends: Why is it that Republicans can participate in a dignified process for the confirmation of liberal justices, but Democrats can't reciprocate the courtesy?
In the end, it will all come down to Judge Alito's demeanor. If he seems like a nice guy, the Democrats are going to have a hard time defeating him -- and will come across like zealots. If, however, they are able to provoke the judge into providing sound bites that can be used against him, all bets are off.
Part of what will allow Judge Alito to accept the gratuitous abuse of Senate Judiciary Democrats without reacting is the knowledge that his reputation and good name are being defended honestly by those who favor his confirmation. To that end, here is handy information to help contradict the misstatements and lies (HT: Confirm Them).
What's worth pointing out (and frequently) is how predictable their M.O. has become. As Kate O'Beirne noted yesterday on yesterday's Meet the Press, the Democrats were going over the hyperbolic top about David Souter. Here's a question for our liberal friends: Why is it that Republicans can participate in a dignified process for the confirmation of liberal justices, but Democrats can't reciprocate the courtesy?
In the end, it will all come down to Judge Alito's demeanor. If he seems like a nice guy, the Democrats are going to have a hard time defeating him -- and will come across like zealots. If, however, they are able to provoke the judge into providing sound bites that can be used against him, all bets are off.
Part of what will allow Judge Alito to accept the gratuitous abuse of Senate Judiciary Democrats without reacting is the knowledge that his reputation and good name are being defended honestly by those who favor his confirmation. To that end, here is handy information to help contradict the misstatements and lies (HT: Confirm Them).
posted by LadybugUSA at 9:10 AM
13 Comments:
"Why is it that Republicans can participate in a dignified process for the confirmation of liberal justices, but Democrats can't reciprocate the courtesy?"
Carol, perhaps you could comment on the blue-slip policy manipulated by Orrin Hatch during Clinton's presidency which prevented dozens of his judicial nominees from even going to committee, let alone getting a "fair up or down vote" on the Senate floor.
Would you please weigh in on the dignity (and fairness) of this procedure?
[Playing a little tag team with Duke-Stir.]
"Why is it that Republicans can participate in a dignified process for the confirmation of liberal justices, but Democrats can't reciprocate the courtesy?"
Carol, perhaps you could comment on the Senate Judiciary Committee Rule IV policy manipulated by Orrin Hatch during Clinton's presidency which prevented dozens of his judicial nominees from even going to committee, let alone getting a "fair up or down vote" on the Senate floor.
Would you please weigh in on the dignity (and fairness) of this procedure?
Nothing but silence (well, maybe a few crickets in the background).
I'm sure the real answer is that their incandescent and unmitigated hatred for Clinton justified everything. But now it's time for everyone to just calm down, pretend it never happened, and revert to the old days of Senate dignity.
Just as your vitriolic hatred of George W. Bush justifies all this?
All what, Larson? Letting Alito have his day in the confirmation hearings?
Getting behind Dubya after 9/11, partisan differences aside, only to have him use that goodwill toward his deadly boondoggle?
Still no comment regarding blue-slips, I see. Just more deflection and obfuscation. Keep it up.
Ruth Bader Ginsberg? Blue-Slip? Should have Filibustered that commie right out the door! Also, it certainly seems that you trotting out blue-slip comments for a Supreme Court nominee is just that, deflecting the question. Why can't the Democrats have a civil and dignified confirmation process, like the Republicans did for RBG?
and for those crickets you heard? It's called work. What I do when not reading Carol's most excellent blog. I read some of the vitriol over at Daily Kos the other day, what a scream. Talk about subliterate discourse.
Hatch killed some of Clinton's final nominations in committee because he remembered Democrats doing the same to the last nominees of the first President Bush.
At least there was none of the accusations and smears against Clinton's nominees that Carol is talking about.
LQ wrote, "Hatch killed some of Clinton's final nominations in committee because he remembered Democrats doing the same to the last nominees of the first President Bush."
The Republicans Blue Slipped, Rule IVed, and threatened filibusters of judicial nominees throughout Clinton's eight years in office. In general this claim is utter balderdash.
But just to play the game, let's pretend that LQ isn't just making this story up. In that case, LQ is claiming that Orrin Hatch killed judicial nominees as some form of payback for politics that was eight years old.
Vengeance as a dish best served cold doesn't fit in real well with Carol's claims of high-minded Republicans, does it?
Duke-stir, those crickets you hear are the results of guilty shame the right wing is celebrating today.
For years the wingnuts have sought to control the Supreme Court so they could overturn Roe. Once Bush nominated ScAlito the confirm them crowd was so jubilant they almost wet themselves with glee.
The problem is, however, that solid majorities of the public do not want the government in their bedrooms. Any nominee that would espouse overturning Roe would ignite a political firestorm the Republicans would surely lose. As such, they have to hide their agenda.
Listening to Alito's opening statement today, you could hear him run from years of his political beliefs in an attempt to buffalo the public. This goes so far that Alito would rather falsely admit to lying on a job application and of being a brown nose than to tell the truth about his feelings on Roe.
Honestly, Mr. Twister, I think it is going to take their successful overturning of Roe to jolt swing voters out of the stupor they've been in since the '80s. Too many people have a hard time seeing through the gauzy, mesmerizing imagery of their empty "family values" rhetoric. They've been lulled into thinking that Republicans truly do care about civil liberties, at least the ones that don't involve a semi-automatic in the glove compartment.
It seems that a juridical 9/11 is needed to awake them. (Although one must wonder why a blatant and unnecessary violation of the Constitution by the executive branch wasn't enough. A deep stupor indeed.)
Please Lord help them, for they know not what they say. I was starting to think that Twister and Duke-Stir like it over here because they can get some intelligent exchanges unlike at the Daily Kos's. But I see they are just as unhinged and moonbat as all the leftys. I mean, Duke talking about rhetoric and then saying conservatives all pack heat in our glove box! No, I don't, but I'm certainly going to consider packing heat on my body if the trend to remove our civil liberties from the moonbats continues. It's the left that is taking away our right to choose: health care, guns, smoking, property ownership, schools, etc. etc. The only thing they want us to choose is murdering innocent babies.
Kirkill wrote, "I'm certainly going to consider packing heat on my body if the trend to remove our civil liberties from the moonbats continues."
Kirkill, you want to watch out. Threatening armed insurretion against the President of the Unted States can get you arrested.
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