Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Lipstick On A Pig
Let me introduce you to the next Supreme Court Justice nominee - his name is Alberto Gonzales.
Democrats are notorious for feuding in public, but Republicans never air their dirty laundry. So why is it that we are being treated to a public viewing of the Religious Right attacking Bush's presumptive Supreme Court nominee? It may be the case that by attacking Gonzales they hope that the left will take an enemy-of-my-enemy approach to Gonzales and play dead during his confirmation hearings. However, considering their opposition to Gonzales being nominated as Attorney General, their opposition to Gonzales' Supreme Court nomination seems to be sincere (unless they are, once again, two steps ahead of the left and were merely setting him up for the Supreme Court battle).
Whatever their motivation, whatever their agenda, we cannot get sucked into approving of Alberto Gonzales' nomination simply because the Religious Right hates him. We have our own reasons for opposing his nomination. Not to mention that whole torture thing that he has going on with Abu Ghraib and all. There's not enough lipstick in a Fashion Fair catalog to beautify this piece of pork.
What to do? Ask questions about divisive issues - activist judges, medical marijuana, eminent domain, and equal justice under the law. There's not much that we can do directly about the nomination - it would have been nice if Justice O'Connor could have held on for three more years - but if we can get the right-wingers lathered-up into a froth about Gonzales' alleged ambiguity on Affirmative Action and abortion (remember, Clarence Thomas was allegedly ambiguous on these matters as well) then they might be able to pressure a few Republican Senators to oppose Gonzales.
Then too, Bush could come back and nominate someone even worse...
Whatever their motivation, whatever their agenda, we cannot get sucked into approving of Alberto Gonzales' nomination simply because the Religious Right hates him. We have our own reasons for opposing his nomination. Not to mention that whole torture thing that he has going on with Abu Ghraib and all. There's not enough lipstick in a Fashion Fair catalog to beautify this piece of pork.
What to do? Ask questions about divisive issues - activist judges, medical marijuana, eminent domain, and equal justice under the law. There's not much that we can do directly about the nomination - it would have been nice if Justice O'Connor could have held on for three more years - but if we can get the right-wingers lathered-up into a froth about Gonzales' alleged ambiguity on Affirmative Action and abortion (remember, Clarence Thomas was allegedly ambiguous on these matters as well) then they might be able to pressure a few Republican Senators to oppose Gonzales.
Then too, Bush could come back and nominate someone even worse...
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It will be interesting to see how often Bush leans on his crutch during the confirmation battle...
That's an excellent cartoon of the president you posted.
And it's so true. When things aren't pretty for President Bush, we hear three familiar things: 9/11, 9/11, and 9/11. Oh yeah, we also hear that being president is "hard work" (y'think?).