THE WORST POSSIBLE NOMINEE ?

If anyone thought Bush planned on naming a moderate, consensus-type judge to replace Harriet Miers after he was lambasted and beaten to a bloody pulp by the extreme right of his own fascist-lead coalition, they need to have their head examined. BushCo's idea of "consensus" doesn't involve the majority of Americans who favor a woman's right to choice or who have the separation of church and state or who think individual rights are more important than corporate rights. BushCo's idea of consensus involves reconciling the interests of the KKK and Aryan Nations with the interests of the folks who run multibillion dollar companies with a PO Boxes in the Bahamas so as not to pay any American taxes.

I was awake early enough to hear Bush reading the resume someone gave him for the extreme right wing loon he just nominated to the Supreme Court. He chose someone of the Far Right's list of 10 pre-approved maniac neo-fascists, someone committed to overturning Roe v Wade, someone committed to ending the meaningful separation of church and state. Bush's last speech to the nation (on Friday) was to laud the "sacrifices" and "service" of a traitorous scumbag in his Regime named Irving Libby (aka- "Scooter," a name Bush uses to make this vicious neo-Nazi sound less sinister and threatening) as he resigned in disgrace after being indicted for 5 serious criminal offenses committed in the heart of the White House. This morning the part of Bush's partisan little introduction that riled me the most was when he had the nerve to bring up the word "ethical" in referring to this crooked right-wing hack he's trying to install on the Supreme Court.

"Scalito," as he is derisively known, shorthand for Scalia-lite (connoting his extreme right-wing philosophy with a smile), is a typical Bush Regime crook. Perhaps you saw the profiles of the list of extremists that the religionist Right pre-approved for Bush to choose from which the WASHINGTON POST ran last week. The most memorable part of Alito's resume wasn't that he was known for a high standard in ethics but that he's a dangerous crook. "Three years ago Alito drew conflict-of-interest accusations after he upheld a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit against the Vanguard Group. Alito had hundreds of thousands of dollars invested with the mutual fund company at the time. He denied doing anything improper but recused himself from further involvement in the case."

In a discussion with Katie Couric this morning, distinguished George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley stated flatly that "There will be no one to the right of Sam Alito on this Court. This is a pretty hardcore fellow on abortion issues." In the case that Alito is best-known for-- perhaps tied with his Christmas tree defense-- he issued a dissenting opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The fanatic judge concurred with the majority in supporting the restrictive abortion-related measures passed by the Pennsylvania legislature in the late 1980’s but he dissented because he didn't feel the majority had gone far enough. He claimed his fellow conservative justices were wrong to strike down a requirement that women notify their spouses before having an abortion. The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently rejected Alito’s lunatic opinion. Other highlights of Alito's judicial cases show clearly that he would oppose protecting victims of race-based discrimination (Bray v Marriott Hotels) or disability-based discrimination (Nathanson v. Medical College of Pennsylvania), and that he would always be there for the wealthy and powerful corporations who have financed his party's rise to political dominance.

People For the American Way has already announced that it do all it can to defeat Alito and Bush's attempt to violently shift the balance on the Supreme Court. According to PFAW President Ralph Neas, "Right-wing leaders vetoed Miers because she failed their ideological litmus test. With Judge Alito, President Bush has obediently picked a nominee who passes that test with flying colors. We had hoped President Bush would nominate someone with a commitment to protecting Americans’ rights and freedoms. That’s what the American people want, and it’s what they deserve. Unfortunately, with Judge Alito, that’s not what President Bush has given us. He has chosen to divide Americans with a nominee guaranteed to cause a bitter fight. Replacing a mainstream conservative like Justice O’Connor with a far-right activist like Samuel Alito would threaten Americans’ rights and legal protections for decades. Justice O’Connor had a pivotal role at the center of the Court, often providing a crucial vote to protect privacy, civil rights, and so much more. All that would be at risk if she were replaced with Judge Alito, who has a record of ideological activism against privacy rights, civil rights, workers’ rights, and more. President Bush wasn’t willing to stand up to the far right, so Americans must count on senators to stand up for the Constitution. Americans will have to live with the next justice long after President Bush has left office." The best place to get all the details of Bush's horrible new nominee is on the People For the American Way web site.




8 AM UPDATE

Of course, given Bush's lack of concern for the long-term effects of anything on the welfare of our nation, it's entirely possible that his main motivation for quickly nominating a hard-right radical judge sure to provoke tons of controversy and lots of headlines and TV debate, was simply to get Irving Libby (aka- Scooter) off the front pages. And, at this Bush has been somewhat successful. I noticed CNN this morning was all about Scalito and nary a mention of Irving or any of the other Republican felons or indictees or probably indictees (Rove, DeLay, Abramoff, Frist, Cheney, Pombo, Cunningham, Noe, Ney, Taft, Bolton, et al).


2:30 PM UPDATE

Oh, and speak of being a typical Bush Regime thug, it now turns out this creep is also, like Bush and Cheney and the rest of these pigs, a filthy chickhawk. The picture gets nicer by the minute.