Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Pot . . . ?

One of my liberal friends sent me an article from Politico on 12/10/18 that summarized the opinions of 44 ex-senators who warned current and future members of the Senate about their “political and ideological bickering.” One of the 44 was quoted as saying, “We were allies and at other times opponents, but never enemies.” Who were these 44 who warned that the U.S. was entering a dangerous period, and urged them to “defend America’s democracy rather than political ideologies.” The 44 were made up of 32 Democrats, 10 Republicans, and 2 Independents ( most likely 2 Independents that vote with the Democrats.) I found this to be particularly interesting because this was sent to me by a liberal friend. In my opinion, this predominately Democrat, although technically “bipartisan” group, could only have been aiming their remarks at the Democrats in the Senate after the recent Kavanaugh debacle orchestrated by left-wing Senate Democrats. It was an embarrassment to the Senate itself. As I review the statements at these hearings there appeared to be multiple examples of “political and ideological bickering.” Who does not recall the Spartacus comment of Cory Booker (D,NJ), and  doesn’t everyone remember Sheldon Whitehouse (D,RI) who said those values that “Republicans supposedly care for in Supreme Court cases – judicial modesty, originalism, respect for precedent – all go out the window if they come up against corporate interests or Republican partisan interests.” To my ear this certainly sounds like “political and ideological bickering!” Senators Hirono (D,HI), Blumenthal (D,CT), and Harris (D,CA) were not shy about throwing stones at their Republican counterparts. All of these Democrat Senators did not appear to be “defending America’s democracy”, but rather appeared to be just spouting “political ideologies!”Just to be certain that I was not misinterpreting the conclusion and the subsequent advice of these past Senators, I reviewed the confirmation votes of all the present Supreme Court Justices to see if the recent Kavanaugh confirmation vote was an outlier, or if it was reflective of the Senate votes over the last 30 years or so. The following are the nine present Supreme Court Justices and the “votes for” their confirmation:Ginsberg – 96 votes for; Breyer – 87; Roberts – 78; Sotomayor – 68; Kagan – 63; Alito – 58; Gorsuch – 54; Thomas – 52; Kavanaugh – 50 . . . which means that four of the top five vote getters were nominated by Democratic presidents, and had a significant number of Republican votes. Similarly, all of the lowest four vote-getters were nominated by Republican presidents and garnered very few Democrat votes. This suggests that in the past, Democrat Senators were not as non-political as they remember themselves to have been! Could this be an example of “the pot calling the kettle black? – with the kettle now generating much more steam!

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