Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

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Mr. [Justice] Roberts

Rich Galen

Wednesday July 20, 2005

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U.S. Circuit Court Judge John G. Roberts will be the next Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

According to Jesse Holland's Associate Press account, "Senators considered Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts so non-controversial that they approved him for a seat on a federal appeals court without a single recorded objection."

In fact, Democratic lawyers in Your Nation's Capital told me weeks ago that Judge Roberts would be perfectly acceptable to them, but that is not to say that he will be perfectly acceptable to the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee or to other paragons of virtue and upholders of the law like Senator Ted Kennedy.

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) nearly broke an ankle getting in front of the TV cameras last night to proclaim, "The burden is on a nominee to the Supreme Court to prove that he is worthy, not on the Senate to prove he is unworthy."

What? Even for Schumer that's an abysmally stupid thing to say.

In the 1955 movie, "Mr. Roberts" Henry Fonda's title character says of the character played by James Cagney, "I realize in wartime they have to scrape the bottom of the barrel, but where did they ever scrape you up?"

Much the same can be said of Chuck Schumer. If you look closely enough you can see barnacle marks on his butt.

Nevertheless, send up the white smoke. We have a nominee.

Continuing the pattern which has been in place since the first of the year, Senate Democrats insist upon acting like House Democrats - which is about the most ghastly thing you can say of a US Senator.

Harry Reid, the Democratic Leader of the Senate established a brand spanking new Constitutional requirement when he said, "The Senate must review Judge Roberts' record to determine if he has a demonstrated commitment to the core American values of freedom, equality and fairness."

To review the bidding, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the US Constitution states:

[The President] � shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint � Judges of the supreme Court �"

Nothing in there about core American values, equality and fairness as defined by the Senate Minority Leader.

Senator Harry "Dumb" Reid? Let me introduce you to Senator Chuck "Dumber" Schumer.

As to that pesky "Advice" part of the Constitution, according to Fox news, "In all, the president consulted with 70 senators, including three-quarters of the Democratic caucus."

Hearings for Justices of the US Supreme Court are not held in the full Senate, they are held in the Judiciary Committee. Therefore, the next piece of business is for the Senate Judiciary Committee to take up this nomination and hold said hearings.

Literally within seconds of President George W. Bush's announcement of Judge Roberts' nomination the dopes at NARAL issued this statement:

"We are extremely disappointed that President Bush has chosen such a divisive nominee for the highest court in the nation, rather than a consensus nominee who would protect individual liberty and uphold Roe v. Wade."

Why do we think that NARAL - which used to be known as the National Abortion Rights Action League until their own polling showed that a huge proportion of Americans thought the name was, um, divisive - has had a statement teed up and ready to put up on the PR Newswire for anyone who was not chosen by Hillary Clinton. Or Ted Kennedy.

Judge Roberts is, without a doubt, a Conservative. According to MSNBC's Tom Curry:

One does not become law clerk to Associate Justice William Rehnquist; special assistant to Ronald Reagan's attorney general William French Smith; associate White House counsel to Reagan and a top practitioner in the solicitor general's office under the first President Bush without being a solid conservative.

But Curry admits, "In the end [Connecticut Senator Joe] Lieberman and other conservative and centrist Democrats will vote for Roberts and he'll be on the high court come October."

Memo to Senate Democrats: Get used to saying these words: Mr. Justice Roberts.

n the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to the Associated Press' compilation of early quotes regarding Judge Roberts, as well as Tom Curry's analysis; a Mullfoto suggested by my current immersion into the world of the Half Blood Prince, and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

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