Monday, October 17, 2005
Full Public Debate
Transparency, not Stealth
Frankly, I find myself tuning out on the whole Harriet Miers nomination. Members of my board of directors who know her have nothing but good things to say about her skills and personality. On the other hand we have those gushy, 7th grade BFF notes she sent President Bush, that not only make me question her judgment, but tend to paint her as a complete suck-up. (unless of course the notes were written in jest or some other context we can't glean from their mere revelation). Anyway, Bush can nominate a ham sandwich to the Supreme Court if he wants, it's his perogative.
What bugs me though is that Bush and the Court work for us...you know "We the People." What I find offensive is the potential private assurances given to James Dobson and others over how Miers would rule on certain cases... I mean, if we already know how a judge would rule, despite the particular facts in the given case and existing precedent, why have a judiciary at all? We could just have Bush or Dobson issue proclamations. But that's a different issue. What irks me is not the Mr. Dobson got private assurances (like that doesn't happen with any candidate or President, having key constituents get a heads up), it's the tremendous lack of discipline on Mr. Dobson's part for going out and crowing about it....Pride goeth before the fall.
Of course, the complete irony that Mr. Dobson (some unelected snake oil salesman who tarnishes the good name of Christians for his own political gain) has the balls to b*tch about the tyranny of the unelected members of the Supreme Court, when he is essentially filling that role in the current administration..well let's just say I have to laugh about that.
The bottom line is that bashing abortion and more recently bashing gays is a core part of the electoral strategy. It would be foolish of any Republican President to put forward someone who would tip the balance on this issue on the high court. A majority of American's support some form of access to abortion, although they may not want their tax dollars paying for it. That's why this will be some endless Orwellian battle and that's why Abortion and the FMA will always be so close to passing, yet so far.
We need to remove abortion from the realm of the right to privacy, thus eliminating such personal choices from the realm of politics. If Miers in fact is a stealth opponent of Roe, well then that just moves that day this much closer. But we won't solve these passionate battles thought stealth candidates and private discussions with Mullahs like Dobson, we will solve them with a full and open debate on the issues, regardless of how uncomfortable the topic may be. We're not getting that with Ms. Miers.
Frankly, I find myself tuning out on the whole Harriet Miers nomination. Members of my board of directors who know her have nothing but good things to say about her skills and personality. On the other hand we have those gushy, 7th grade BFF notes she sent President Bush, that not only make me question her judgment, but tend to paint her as a complete suck-up. (unless of course the notes were written in jest or some other context we can't glean from their mere revelation). Anyway, Bush can nominate a ham sandwich to the Supreme Court if he wants, it's his perogative.
What bugs me though is that Bush and the Court work for us...you know "We the People." What I find offensive is the potential private assurances given to James Dobson and others over how Miers would rule on certain cases... I mean, if we already know how a judge would rule, despite the particular facts in the given case and existing precedent, why have a judiciary at all? We could just have Bush or Dobson issue proclamations. But that's a different issue. What irks me is not the Mr. Dobson got private assurances (like that doesn't happen with any candidate or President, having key constituents get a heads up), it's the tremendous lack of discipline on Mr. Dobson's part for going out and crowing about it....Pride goeth before the fall.
Of course, the complete irony that Mr. Dobson (some unelected snake oil salesman who tarnishes the good name of Christians for his own political gain) has the balls to b*tch about the tyranny of the unelected members of the Supreme Court, when he is essentially filling that role in the current administration..well let's just say I have to laugh about that.
The bottom line is that bashing abortion and more recently bashing gays is a core part of the electoral strategy. It would be foolish of any Republican President to put forward someone who would tip the balance on this issue on the high court. A majority of American's support some form of access to abortion, although they may not want their tax dollars paying for it. That's why this will be some endless Orwellian battle and that's why Abortion and the FMA will always be so close to passing, yet so far.
We need to remove abortion from the realm of the right to privacy, thus eliminating such personal choices from the realm of politics. If Miers in fact is a stealth opponent of Roe, well then that just moves that day this much closer. But we won't solve these passionate battles thought stealth candidates and private discussions with Mullahs like Dobson, we will solve them with a full and open debate on the issues, regardless of how uncomfortable the topic may be. We're not getting that with Ms. Miers.
