It's Pat!

So I tried again to watch Fox and Friends in the Morning, but couldn't last very long. They had a guest blond bimbo, Carrie Prejean, the pro-opposite-marriage Miss California. It was kind of funny for a while, she mad the other dufi seem to be of average intelligence. Then she brought her preacher on, some former coked out football player, and I couldn't take it.

So I had to go, well I didn't but I did, watch Morning Joe. Of course the topic of the day was the new Supreme Court nominee. And it didn't take long for me to start throwing things at the TV.

Mike Barnicle started with his concerns about Judge Sotomayor. Of course it had to to with that vile discrimination case in New Haven. Though not specifically upset with the case, his concerns had to do with the one paragraph opinion she had written. How could she decide something so important in just one paragraph? Then he let on that he had not read the paragraph, if he had he maybe could answer his question. Or better yet not even ask it.

Then Joe went on a tirade about how Republicans always treat Democratic high court nominees with respect, and always vote to approve, a "favor" Democrats don't return. He then brings up Bork, Thomas, who the Democrats hated because he was a black conservative, and Alito, reminding us of how Alito's wife had left the room in tears.

Well Joe, the Democrats excoriated Bork because he was a true political hack. He, against all rules, fired the Watergate Special Prosecutor, something nobody in the Nixon Justice Department would do, as they had respect for the law. Someone who would violate rules for pure political purposes, does not sit on the Supreme Court.

Clarence Thomas had almost no paper trail. That was the biggest objection to him, not that he was a black conservative. The sex stuff all came at the last minute, the paper trail was the biggest problem as there was no way to determine how he might work on the court. And since his elevation, there is still almost no paper trail. We have to rely on tell all books to see how he works with the other Justices.

But the one who got me really crazy was Pat Buchanan. He of course is also upset with the New Haven case. The man is so distraught at the end of a society ruled by rich white males. He's beside himself. He then also launches the whole activist judge blather. We need to have jurists who follow the Constitution.

Pat, bullshit.

No one wants a strict following of the Constitution. You want them to follow it as you interpret it. Just as you interpret the Bible to be God's law that homosexuality is an abomination, yet a few verses away when the Bible says not to eat pork, you interpret that differently. Just as you interpret the Bible to say that abortion is an abomination, even though it isn't even mentioned.

Take the Second Amendment: the right of the people to bear arms shall not be infringed. Timothy McVeigh was one of the people. A thermonuclear device is an arm. Not even you, Pat, would be willing to accept laws that would allow a homicidal maniac the right to possess a nuclear weapon. Yet that is what a strict interpretation of the Constitution would provide.

And thank heavens not everyone has the same interpretations that you do Pat. Some of us actually think Nixon was a jerk.