COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Schumer Doesn't Like The US Constitution Much


"a tremendous disrespect for the Constitution"- Dana Perino

...He ( The President) shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court...


Schumer to fight new Bush high court picks
By: Carrie Budoff Politico
Jul 27, 2007 05:33 PM EST


Schumer said his “greatest regret” in the last Congress was not doing more to scuttle Alito.

New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a powerful member of the Democratic leadership, said Friday the Senate should not confirm another U.S. Supreme Court nominee under President Bush “except in extraordinary circumstances.”

“We should reverse the presumption of confirmation,” Schumer told the American Constitution Society convention in Washington. “The Supreme Court is dangerously out of balance. We cannot afford to see Justice Stevens replaced by another Roberts, or Justice Ginsburg by another Alito.”

Schumer’s assertion comes as Democrats and liberal advocacy groups are increasingly complaining that the Supreme Court with Bush’s nominees – Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito – has moved quicker than expected to overturn legal precedents.

Senators were too quick to accept the nominees’ word that they would respect legal precedents, and “too easily impressed with the charm of Roberts and the erudition of Alito,” Schumer said.

“There is no doubt that we were hoodwinked,” said Schumer, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee and heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

A White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said Schumer's comments show "a tremendous disrespect for the Constitution" by suggesting that the Senate not confirm nominees.

"This is the kind of blind obstruction that people have come to expect from Sen. Schumer," Perino said. "He has an alarming habit of attacking people whose character and position make them unwilling or unable to respond. That is the sign of a bully. If the past is any indication, I would bet that we would see a Democratic senatorial fundraising appeal in the next few days."

Schumer voted against confirming Roberts and Alito. In Friday’s speech, he said his “greatest regret” in the last Congress was not doing more to scuttle Alito.

“Alito shouldn’t have been confirmed,” Schumer said. “I should have done a better job. My colleagues said we didn’t have the votes, but I think we should have twisted more arms and done more.”

While no retirements appear imminent, Bush still could have the opportunity to fill another vacancy on the court. Yet the two oldest members – Justice John Paul Stevens, 87, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 74 – are part of the court's liberal bloc and could hold off retirement until Bush leaves office in January, 2009.

Earlier this week, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, the Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican, said he was persuaded by a conversation with Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who spoke with Specter at the Aspen Institute gathering in Colorado this month, to study the decisions of the Roberts Court. The term that ended in June was notable for several rulings that reversed or chipped away at several long-standing decisions, delighting conservatives but enraging liberals.

Breyer has publicly raised concerns that conservative justices were violating stare decisis, the legal doctrine that, for the sake of stability, courts should generally leave precedents undisturbed.

“It is not often in the law that so few have so quickly changed so much,” Breyer said, reading his dissent from the bench in June to a 5-4 ruling that overturned school desegregation policies in two cities.

Schumer said there were four lessons to be learned from Alito and Roberts: Confirmation hearings are meaningless, a nominee’s record should be weighed more heavily than rhetoric, “ideology matters” and “take the president at his word.”

“When a president says he wants to nominate justices in the mold of [Antonin] Scalia and [Clarence] Thomas,” Schumer said, “believe him.”

22 comments:

  1. I saw this article earlier today. Schumer is a despicable man.

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  2. Stare decisis--what a big words!--is a bunch of crap--and everybody knows it--especially the blacks--who were what--3/5ths?--of a human being-under stare decisis.

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  4. Mr Schumer and Ms Clinton, both well represent their constituents, to the cheers of their majorities in New York and DC.

    Fighting a rear guard action against them, well beyond Mr Rove's abilities, as he is, according to Robert Novak, in denial, so we can assume Mr Bush is, also:

    Karl Rove, President Bush's political lieutenant, told a closed-door meeting of 2008 Republican House candidates and their aides Tuesday that it was less the war in Iraq than corruption in Congress that caused their party's defeat in the 2006 elections.

    Rove's clear advice to the candidates is to distance themselves from the culture of Washington. Specifically, Republican candidates are urged to make clear they have no connection with disgraced congressmen such as Duke Cunningham and Mark Foley.

    In effect, Rove was rebutting the complaint inside the party that George W. Bush is responsible for Republican miseries by invading Iraq.


    Yep, not Mr Bush's responsibility, his failures in the eyes of the American public.
    Blame Mark Foley, that's the ticket, Mr Foley and Mr Kolbe, the Gays, they're the problem with the GOP.

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  5. Stare decisis is what you argue, when the court has ruled in your favor, in the past, and you wish it to continue doing so.

    It's a bunch of legal crap.

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  6. I think the Congress, under the Constitution, has the ability, but not the guts, to just wipe out all the Judiciary, if they so chose.

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  7. Stare decisis
    You are right, bob.
    Look at the "Landmark Cases"
    Brown vs BoE
    Roe vs Wade
    Miranda vs AZ

    All were found contrary to stare decisis.
    Hamdan, that decision decided contrary to the letter of the Law and common sense, let alone stare decisis

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  8. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away.

    Show me where I am wrong.

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  9. When the politicians get too obnoxious, the people begin forming militias, and fight it out, and then create a new constitution.

    There are many references in the words of our founding fathers to this kink of outlook...after all, that is the manner in which they were born.

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  10. bob, you're right on, Section 2 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate and exempt the Court from an issue, if it so desires.

    In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.

    Congress could make exception to Hamdan, removing the Courts' jurisdiction, if Congress so voted.

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  11. Right. Congress is boss, they way we are living now. But I am not certain how many of them know it. It may be a good thing a lot of them don't.

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  12. 'with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the congress shall make'--Right.

    In the language of the street, do well, think of the afterlife, and may the Lord guide you.

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  13. Schumer on FOX News, going after Gonzo, for perjury.

    Gonzo should already be gone, long gone. But what the hey, it's all good.

    Mr Rove saying that the GOP needs to avoid those that have a "tinge" of DC corruption. All the while Mr Gonzo spins like an Iranian centrifuge.

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  14. Rat, I leave it to you to report.
    And I like it. To me, the best thing an getting older guy can do, is listen to the wind through the lovely trees, see the moon rise, and wonder.

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  15. BS AlBobAl:
    You have a responsibility to your daughter, among others, to try to pass on as much as we were given as possible.
    ...what little there is left of a once proud country.

    Maybe you or I will achieve zippo in such endeavors, but at least we will have tried, right?
    ...you were the only footsoldier among us re: immigration that I'm aware of, so don't sell yourself short as you long to be a retired English Prof!

    Be glad you spent your life in healthy, honest work, instead!
    You might have turned into a real squish after 25 years surrounded by the current crop of pervs in many of the "Social Sciences."

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  16. Kirk Douglas is 80, slowed by a stroke, and still kicking, even writing another book, I think.

    Did you see that amazing stroke post by Wretch?
    Guy wrote a book by blinking, or some such!

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  17. Dubya loves the imagery of the Dems beating up on a Hispanic every day all day long. He hopes it will go on until election day.

    Some of these Dems were Not at the Head of their class.

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  18. O, okay Doug, you have whipped me ,as should be done, and I accept it, your thrashing, as I should.

    Your friend.

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  19. Rufus,how in the name of the Constitution of The United States of America, do we keep these mad 'scientists' under control?

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  20. Ain't no way, Bubba. Just "Pray."

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