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Michael Green's avatar

A couple of things.

One is that if some left-wing morons hadn't voted for Ralph Nader in New Hampshire, Al Gore would have had 270 electoral votes and Florida wouldn't have mattered. If Gore is president, do we get Alito? Of course not.

Another is that Alito was, of course, a Bush appointee. Often justices seem much more liberal or conservative than when they came on the court or than the president who appointed them, but it's truer that the issues themselves change. FDR wanted justices who would uphold the New Deal. He got them. But when it came time to deal with threats to civil liberties, they divided.

But Alito is not different from the administrations from which he emerged. As a Reaganite, he was tied to the same ideology. Likewise, lest we forget, beyond Iraq and screwing up 9/11, the Bush administration believed in "signing statements" and a "unitary executive." Alito is just another republican.

Finally, I always use lower-case because Lincoln was a Republican. There's a difference. It would be more accurate to call today's republicans Copperheads or Confederates.

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Louis Giglio's avatar

And papa bush gave us Clarence the grifter!

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TCinLA's avatar

As "payback" for Thurgood Marshall.

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Michael Green's avatar

And that is really what tore it for me. Not because I expected Poppy to appoint a liberal (and he didn't--David Souter was a moderate justice; the last liberal justice was indeed Thurgood Marshall). Rather, unlike his son, he was smart enough to know better when he described the Long Dong Silver wannabe as the most qualified person.

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JDinTX's avatar

I like “copperheads.” Vipers is what they are

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Michael Green's avatar

They also were Lincoln's enemies, or "the fire in the rear," as he put it in those innocent times.

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Fay Reid's avatar

It wasn't just the spoiler effects of Nader, Michael, it was also the sexual misconduct of Clinton (which shouldn't even been brought to the Nation's attention, except Newt Gingrich forced it. Sexual morality (unless force or minors are involved) is no ones business and has nothing to do with running the government). That apparently turned a lot of voters off and reflected unfavorably on Gore (like he could have intervened?)

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TCinLA's avatar

Actually, Clinton by 1990 was quite popular again, and Gore's mistake was he listened to the moralizing of his wife and his running mate Joe Lieberman and distanced himself from the popular Clinton (who was certainly more popular than he was). Vote count or not, Al Gore was why the election was so close when it shouldn't have been.

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JDinTX's avatar

Rove’s evil hand had been cheating, plotting, and scheming since foisting W on Texas in 1994. He also turned most churches into arms of the Repub party on 2004. An evil bastard from the git go.

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Fay Reid's avatar

I think you mean 2000, Clinton was first elected in 1992. He was always popular. Gingrich going after him on sexual immorality was a joke, as I recall Newt's wife left him for screwing around. I have never thought coitus had anything to do with ability to lead.

My problem was I actually liked Al Gore, his climate science, although he was a lawyer, was well founded. And of course the real reason he lost was soley due to the stupid electoral college. And the electoral college was due to the snobbish framers of the Constitution who were convinced that only propertied (landed) educated gentlemen were capable of running the country. By the time we, the people, accepted what a fallacy that was it was too late. The small (by population) States enjoyed their only source of power for a Constitutional Amendment to pass. (we couldn't even pass the toothless 28th Amendment that only said there were no legal differences between the rights of the genders)

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JDinTX's avatar

I thought the SC chose Bush, the people certainly didn’t. And Newt is still a self-righteous pig. Sorry to smear pigs with that comment, but I once thought he was as low as they could go. Silly me.

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Fay Reid's avatar

He had sufficient electoral college votes with Florida to give him the Presidency and yes, the Supreme Court by a count of 5 to 4 stopped the vote count if Florida, thereby giving the Presidency to GW Bush. The usual 5 Republican to 4 Democrats. I really think we need a better way of appointing ALL Federal Judges both Supreme and Inferior.

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JDinTX's avatar

We had better stop letting repubs pull fast ones on us, the dirty tricksters have more evil up their sleeves than Dems are usually aware of. Lara Trump is fond of saying “We won’t back down.” Well, Dems should never again. Dem lawyers need to get more “creative.” The gall of chump and his cult knows no bounds.

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Louis Giglio's avatar

Recall he didn’t carry his home state!

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Michael Green's avatar

Oh, yes, and Gore himself having his issues. But Clinton remained popular with the public. Apropos of a great story in Politico about how The New York Times won't admit it's shivving Joe Biden because nepo baby AG Sulzberger is mad that he won't give them an interview, Frank Bruni was so far up W's butt in 2000 that if he had sneezed, Bush would have had a religious experience. A lot of factors worked against Gore including that, in Florida, Democrats were their usual selves, bringing pillows to a knife fight.

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Fay Reid's avatar

LOL, Agreed! Love your description of us Democrats.

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Michael Green's avatar

I want to patent a line of mine, in honor of Michelle Obama: When they go low, we ... should castrate them with a rusty, unsharpened knife, without anesthesia.

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Fay Reid's avatar

Oh, I love that. But what if the criminal is female? LOL

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Michael Green's avatar

Ha! I'd better quit while I'm behind. :)

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Fay Reid's avatar

LOL

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JDinTX's avatar

And there are plenty….

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