Supreme Court nomination proceedings, from now on

Thre's an article out right now on The Huffington Post about Senator Arlen Specter telling Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan that her testimony was a bit of a waste of time and that it--the testimony--and Ms. Kagan hadn't been "substantive". Well, I've got news for you, Senator Specter--and the rest of the United States, for that matter--Supreme Court testimony for nominations will, from now on and for perpetuity, be exactly like this. Nothing will really be said and no commitments will be made, no matter the nominee, no matter the nominator. Sure, partly it's due to reaction of the whole Robert Bork debacle, years ago, but, at the same time, it's also due to the nature of courts and being a Supreme Court judge. All the nominee can do is say that they--whoever they are and whatever their politics or beliefs--won't bring their beliefs and prejudices into the court and then say it again and again. They will also have to repeat, ad infinitum, that they will weigh each case on its merits. Get used to it, folks. This is the shape of things to come, for ever and ever, amen. Link to original post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/30/specter-gets-frustrated-w_n_630952.html?igoogle=1

Thanks, Ted

I got a bit of a history lesson this morning, listening, as usual, to NPR as I prepared for work.

Naturally, the media is still abuzz about all things Ted Kennedy. They were telling of the Senator's famous speech on "Robert Bork's America" and they broadcast this quote:

"Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is often the only protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy."

And then I realized--with George W. Bush and the push of the Republican Party since Ronald Reagan was President, that's exactly what they've been working for.

And they got a some of this.

And they haven't given up on some of the rest of this, either.

Link to the original speech:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Robert_Bork's_America