What the Roberts Hearings Will Reveal
I want you to know that I am approaching the Roberts hearings with an open mind. I have every expectation that Senators Schumer, Kennedy, Leahy et al. will conduct themselves in a dignified and fair manner. I have to warn them, however, that if they should take cheap partisan shots at the nominee, as they have often done in the past, I may have to lose respect for them. That would be gravely disappointing. But — and I say this in all sincerity — I am not going to prejudge the issue.
Oh, sorry. For a second there I thought I was a United States Senator. Why else would I tell transparent lies about keeping an open mind, when I reached a decision on the issue long ago?
Where is the outrage over Tribe Casinos? To this day a condition of being a member of one of these Indian Tribes is racial purity. If your blood isn’t “pure” enough, you can’t be in on the action. I expect not a single question about this. This special casino industry spreads into communities where casinos have been otherwise outlawed for 100 years for people like me with impure blood. The Senators ask Roberts about the constitutionality of the internment of Japanese 60 years ago instead. What a bunch of crazypeople.
Shredstar (532850) — 9/13/2005 @ 8:36 amDid anyone hear Senator Biden this morning at the hearings. Biden, the plagiarist, “I wrote that, I actually wrote that; well, my staff and I.”
bureaucrat (0ca614) — 9/13/2005 @ 11:38 amPatterico – you might also be a judge claiming to have an open mind on issues you’d prejudged long ago.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 9/13/2005 @ 12:09 pmTed Kennedy's SCOTUS confirmation hearings crib notes
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update: Patterico has more faith than I do.
protein wisdom (c0db44) — 9/13/2005 @ 12:43 pmCould somebody light a match?
Tongueboy (23830c) — 9/13/2005 @ 12:48 pmI think we should regard the Senate hearing as a sort of Turing test.
Eric Wilner (3936fd) — 9/13/2005 @ 1:02 pmIf Roberts makes it through the hearing without shooting any Senators, he should be disqualified on grounds of obviously being an android.
I’m actually starting to see a silver lining here. When Roberts was first nominated, I had some of the qualms his detractors on the right had. Do we really know enough about this man to say “hell yes, this is my guy for the Supreme Court”? But as the pre-hearing attacks began, and now as he is weathering the silly attacks in the hearings, he is emerging as just the person with the depth, the wisdom, the moral clarity that makes him “my guy for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court”. There are no guarantees in life. But I have a real good feeling about the next 30 years and the Roberts Court.
Lew Clark (393a76) — 9/13/2005 @ 1:26 pmI want a Senator to ask Roberts if he’s ever made fun of any of the committee members in private. And then ask him if the people around him laughed a little or a lot. That’s it. No further questions.
Joe Miller (90af87) — 9/13/2005 @ 2:03 pmSure, it doesn’t take a lot to make the Demorcrat senatorial mind trust look dumb, but I would like it a whole lot better if Roberts was as least occasionally called a libertarian with regards to inalienable rights.
Jon Borrows (258e2e) — 9/13/2005 @ 4:11 pmPatterico – you might also be a judge claiming to have an open mind on issues you’d prejudged long ago.
Cute. But while we have been surprised by decisions issued by the likes of Kennedy and Souter, I don’t expect to be surprised one whit by the votes of Chuckie S. or Teddy Kennedy.
Patterico (e678c7) — 9/14/2005 @ 12:29 amPatterico – i don’t expect to be surprised by the votes of Kennedy and Biden. I haven’t read Schumer’s remarks yet, so i’m holding out the possibility.
My point was more that there’s something frustrating about the entire “i’m not going to comment on that because I want to keep an open mind” facade. I find it difficult to believe that *any* judge being nominated for the Supreme Court hasn’t already determined whether or not he thinks that, say, Wickard was correctly decided; so why the pretense that they haven’t?
This isn’t specific to Judge Roberts; it bothered me during all of the confirmation hearings in the early 90s, as well.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 9/14/2005 @ 11:56 amyou need a warnig label… I laughed so hard my coffee… spilled…
jtb-in-texas (cb3d2d) — 9/16/2005 @ 8:27 am