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The Weblog at The View from the Core - Fri. 11/12/04 08:05:04 AM
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The Specter of Specter Thomas Sowell writes at TownHall about the senior senator from my state. From Tuesday, Nov. 9: .... Senator Specter is also one of those people who is often wrong but never in doubt. He has mangled the meaning of such basic concepts as "judicial activism" and "original intent." It would be a tragedy for him to become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he could mangle nominees and in the process mangle the Constitution of the United States. From Wednesday, Nov. 10: .... The South Dakota voters' defeat of Senator Tom Daschle, leader of the obstructionists who refused to let some of President Bush's judicial nominees come up for a vote in the Senate, seemed to offer some hope that such obstructionism might subside. But Senator Specter's words suggest that the mantle of obstructionism may simply have been passed on from Daschle to Specter. If Senate Republicans follow seniority and make Senator Specter chairman of the Senate Judiciary, then we could be in for the dangerous business of litmus tests for judicial nominees and the trashing of nominees who believe in following the original intent of laws, rather than engaging in judicial activism.... From yesterday, Nov. 11: .... To President Bush's credit, he has tried to stop the steady drift toward arbitrary judicial rule by nominating people like California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown who have a track record of opposing judicial activism. A President who is trying to make a fundamental change in the federal judiciary and a chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee who wants to continue the "mainstream" trends are in a fundamental contradiction, no matter how much each side tries to paper over the difference with nice words. With so many federal court vacancies, and with several Supreme Court vacancies almost certain to occur during the next four years, this may be the last chance in our lifetime to reverse the trend toward government by unelected judges.... Specter is trying to sow confusion about what he said the day after the election; recall that I blogged a transcript for your inspection. Here, for example, is a clear & indisputable admission, from the mouth of Arlen Specter himself, that he "expects" that judicial nominees would be acceptable to the Democrats who have been filibustering to keep the Senate from confirming nominees: .... We start off with the basic fact that the Democrats are have filibustered and expect them to filibuster if the nominees are not within the broad range of acceptability. I think there is a very broad range of Presidential Discretion but there is a range.... I don't want to prejudge what the President is going to do. But the President is well aware of what happened when a number of his nominees were sent up, were filibustered, and the President has said he is not going to impose a litmus test, he faced that issue squarely in the third debate and I would not expect the President, I would expect the President to be mindful of the considerations that I mentioned.... Lane Core Jr. CIW P Fri. 11/12/04 08:05:04 AM |
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