Tag: reactions

Nomination and Confirmation

Post author By David
Post date July 21, 2005
No Comments on Nomination and Confirmation

Warning: Undefined array key "adf" in /home4/hpvcxhmy/public_html/wp-content/plugins/similarity/similarity.php on line 69

Warning: Undefined array key "sim_pages" in /home4/hpvcxhmy/public_html/wp-content/plugins/similarity/similarity.php on line 70

Well, we’ve had the name of John Roberts as the niminee for the opening on the Supreme Court bench for a couple of days now. I have tried to give myself some time to gather some information and draw some conclusions before I posted my thoughts in this nomination. The main questions were: (1)should John Roberts be confirmed? and (2)will John Roberts be confirmed?My personal answers at this time are: (1)I still don’t have enough information to say for sure and (2)probably.

John Roberts has the objective credentials to be a supreme court justice. There are those who might complain about a lack of experience, but really we could do much worse on experience. So far the democratic senators who have spoken up seem to indicate that they will not make this a nasty confirmation. They have both the right and the responsibility to question Judge Roberts thoroughly during the confirmation hearings but it appears that they will not resort to a filibuster which means that he will probably be confirmed.

Now, because of how little I have been able to learn about this man with the thin judicial resume, the question has been raised in my head: is the way to get people appointed to the supreme court in these days of divisive politics to find someone who has a scant record who you hope will do what you want (based on your own ideological leaning) but who has very little for the opposition to oppose? That seems to be the formula here. I do not mean to imply that Judge Roberts is unqualified or even that the president might think him unqualified but dependable. I am saying that one of the reasons that I believe this nomination will succeed, and possibly one of the reasons that it was made, is because the liberals may have their objections and suspicions but they have very little ammunition from Roberts’ short tenure as a federal judge.

Hopefully I have made it clear what I am referring to when I ask: does our political situation dictate that this is how to make things happen? And if so: is it a safe situation to require that a judge have a short track record if he is to survive the confirmation process?

Tags nominations, questions, reactions, Supreme Court

culture

Bill Gates’ Speech

Thanks to e-Clippings I read the text of Bill Gates’ Speech on America’s failing high schools.

I can’t say that I am the biggest fan of Gates’ products, but his rhetoric here is exactly right and I think everyone should read it.

Tags Education, reactions

General

More Daylight

What difference will more daylight savings make to those of us outside of Arizona? Not much that I can see.

If the politicians want to pass this I don’t mind it. I would love to use more sunlight, but let’s not fool ourselves that this will make a big difference in our oil consumption. If we save 10,000 barrels per day for an extra five weeks out of the year it would take us 57 years to save one day’s worth of oil at 20 million barrels per day (our current usage level) so it will not make us noticably less dependent on the Arabian peninsula.

Tags issues, oil, reactions

National

Running mates

While reading Maureen Dowd’s column (The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Are They Losing It?) I began to think some old thoughts that I believed I had forsaken. When things started getting worse for the Bush administration I briefly flirted with the idea that the president would be best served by getting rid of the vice president and a few of his other hawkish advisors. Eventually I decided that it would be enough to get rid of the others and that the VP could stay. I’m rethinking that position. I would not blame Cheney for all the administrations problems as easily as Ms. Dowd does, but the only benefits that Mr. Cheney brought to the ticket in 2000 no longer apply. He was a face of experience in a rather novice administration. He brought a familiar face for the world, but that was a world at peace where America was fairly well respected. No matter how experienced any memeber of this administration is or isn’t now they will be judged based on the last four years. The world is no longer at peace and America is not nearly so well respected in the world as it was before. Neither of those things is strictly the fault of this administration (circumstances beyond anybody’s control played a part) but the fact is that the problem is worse than it could have been because of some poor advice from Mr. Cheney, among others. I think the best thing for the Bush re-election campaign would be to unload the baggage and start with a fresh VP.

For all the talk of a cross-party Kerry/McCain ticket, I think a Bush/McCain ticket would be a formidable sight next to a Kerry/Anyone Else ticket. John McCain is closer to the center than the president while Dick Cheney is closer to the right than the president. McCain is a known uniter and nobody doubts that he means what he says even if it is not popular. McCain could be a very trustworthy face next to Bush which would be a great step up from the controversy laden Cheney.

Tags 2004, national candidates, New York Times, reactions