
 |
|
February 10, 2012
Lisa M. Krieger: Man with defibrillator demands access to his own heart's information
David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
February 9, 2012
Laura McMullen: 10 Least Expensive Public Schools for Out-of-State Students
Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
|
| |
Jewish World Review
August 9, 2005
/ 4 Av, 5765
Roberts is trouble
By
Marianne M. Jennings
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
You don't see liberals, with the notable exceptions of the neocons, Harry Stein, and David Horowitz, waking up with epiphanies that make them conservatives. Appoint ACLUer Ruth Ginsburg to the U.S. Supreme Court and you get ACLU rulings on municipal crèches. Put Thurgood Marshall on that same bench and you can bet your Birkenstocks that he'll issue a civil rights ruling in an SEC insider trading case. With the exceptions of the Clintons, who do what it takes for another crack at pardoning thugs and heisting White House furniture, liberals don't waffle.
Are liberals more committed? Are they more correct? Why do conservatives turn into them but not vice-versa? Is there some road to Damascus upon which conservatives are hijacked and tortured, as much as Gitmo-sensitive liberals will allow, with replays of Live-Aid concert tapes, until they submit to the ideology of peace, love, taxes, and Michael Moore? To wit: "Join us or it's the Sting and Bono duet again!"
Nay, liberals are not more correct. Neither are they more committed. One can hardly commit to a moving line. The advantage that liberals have over conservatives is fawning acceptance. Go their way and you become the toast of the town and most history books. Buck them and you end up in the trash heap with the Lotts, the DeLays, the Clarence Thomases, the Limbaughs, and the Newts. Scorn and mockery are the tools of the left. Few can withstand the barrage.
A member of the media once asked Ronald Reagan how he kept going and held firm in his convictions despite constant derision. His answer, "Because I'm right." Few conservatives have such conviction with so much grace. Most succumb to popularity's temptation. Newt Gingrich has paired up with Hillary on health care because Newt wants a mainstream comeback and they both crave acceptance and its power. Ken Starr, an iconic conservative who, according to leftist urban legend, has a 666 on his skull, found himself scrambling to clean up the damage from a CBS interview in which he hurt (whether by misquote or not) the Republican efforts to halt the Democrats' Senate judicial filibuster. Why on earth would a conservative speak with CBS in the first place?
They talk to the likes of CBS because it feels terrific. Being quoted by the left instead of lambasted by them has its lure. Castro, bin Laden, and third-world despots have more positive press than John Bolton.
With this backdrop, how difficult can this be? The single most important factor in appointing a Supreme Court justice is integrity: the ability to hold firm to one's convictions, even when the mockery envelopes you. When President Bush nominated John Roberts, I told my father, "He's trouble."
Trouble is inevitable because of conservatives' record for Supreme Court justices. Liberals need not fear anyone we lob up to the Senate for approval. Take our nominees, please. We don't even have the stamina to weather the hearings on a true conservative. So we send up these feel-good candidates who turn on us.
President Reagan had Sandra O'Connor go south on him. By the time she retired she was touting international law as a resource for interpreting our constitution. And she was drawing arbitrary and capricious 25-year limit lines on affirmative action in law school admissions. She became the toast of the left by legislating from the bench via piecemeal decisions that turned the high court into a body so political that the future of our representative government hangs on the appointment of one man.
Don't get me started on David Thoreau Souter. The man ate cottage cheese for lunch and lived alone among stacked books. Conservatives insist on the bread group at lunch and should have seen "weird" coming, to wit, "You're nominating a hermit?"
Anthony Kennedy fell into the "Like me please!" trap about December 2000. He sided with the group that reined in the Florida Supreme Court and left the chads hanging in the interest of having a president. Fearful of a legacy of "political hack," Kennedy has teamed up with Ginsburg and Souter. He hesitates, waffles, apologizes, and bends with the liberal winds. In the recent Kelo eminent domain case in which Connecticut property owners were ousted from their homes, Kennedy issued a concurring opinion that said, in effect, "I can't say when, but this seizing of land might get out of hand." It has, sir, it already has. Ask any conservative who approved your appointment.
Roberts signals this approval-desire-disease. He and his wife placed their wedding announcement in the New York Times. There it is! Conservatives don't cotton to such vaudevillian displays. Such newspaper-of-record wedding announcements ooze with the self-importance of the insecure.
Those around Roberts have pointed out, quite unanimously, that he doesn't wear his religion on his sleeve. What on earth does that mean? We're not asking for an arm patch that boasts, "Catholic and proud of it," or "They will have to pry my cold dead fingers from the confessional." How about someone who does not exhibit the insecurity of hiding that his faith is an integral part of him?
Roberts has argued all sides of almost all constitutional issues. The media point to this experience as evidence of a judicial mind. They read it all wrong. Roberts has functioned as an amoral technician. Sheer numbers (37) on his oral arguments before the Supreme Court reveal that it was about personal accolades, the notches on the belt, and the million-dollar partnership income. "Whatever you want me to argue" doesn't blend well nor bode well for conviction.
Roberts' recent troubles over his failure to disclose his "helpful" and "strategic" pro bono work on the Colorado Romer v. Evans (a Kennedy wonder decision telling the citizens of Colorado that they could not vote to exclude sexual orientation as a protected class) case is troublesome. There it is again a desire so great to win acceptance that it trumped forthrightness. A little more religion on the sleeve and a little less tromping on values to reach a goal that Ten Commandments stuff is mighty helpful in a "To disclose or not disclose" situation such as one's pro bono work for gay rights groups when accepting a conservative's nomination. Perhaps he just forgot. Perhaps he felt such pro bono work would help him with his wedding announcement newspaper.
Mr. Bush should withdraw Judge Roberts as his nominee. The misrepresentation, whether innocent or otherwise, about his pro bono work, reveals a character flaw. All we ask is a nominee with conviction who does not require trivial accolades and mainstream note. With a Justice Roberts, the liberals worry that the 5-4 decisions will disappear. They are correct. With Roberts there, the Ginsburg et al. block will grow to 6-3.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Marianne M. Jennings is a professor of legal and ethical studies at Arizona State
University. Send your comments by clicking here.
Marianne M. Jennings Archives
© 2005, Marianne M. Jennings
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Tony Blankley
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Alan Douglas
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
Marybeth Hicks
David Horowitz
Jeff Jacoby
Renee James
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ed Koch
Ch. Krauthammer
Michael Ledeen
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Pat Sajak
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Ben Wattenberg
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
Lisa Benson
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Jimmy Margulies
Rick McKee
Michael Ramirez
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Ed Stein
Danna Summers
John Trever
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters

Mr. Know-It-All
Dr. Peter Gott
GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
Tech Maven
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|