Governor Dean Op-Ed
Posted by on January 5, 2006 at 10:07 AM
(You may have noticed an op-ed in your paper this morning from Governor Dean on Samuel Alito. If not, here is the full text for your enjoyment -- Tim)
It's been widely acknowledged that President Bush had a bad year in 2005. One of the problems America faces as a result is the White House's willingness to make decisions based on what's good for the administration politically rather than what's right for America. The nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. to replace Sandra Day O'Connor is an example of this. The president hopes to make up ground with his right-wing base, instead of appointing someone who will have the confidence of a wide range of Americans. Over the past few months, as we've learned more about Judge Alito's core beliefs and the kind of justice he would be, it has become clear why the Senate should reject his nomination.
Judge Alito's decisions, such as his attacks on the Family and Medical Leave protections and his willingness to excuse the grossest form of sexual harassment in the workplace based on technicalities, have harmed working people. Judge Alito has also attacked Americans' personal liberties by approving the inappropriate strip search of a 10-year-old and defending the construction of all-white juries by unscrupulous prosecutors trying black defendants. A Supreme Court justice must show impartiality and fairness. Judge Alito does not meet that test.
Further complicating Judge Alito's nomination is a lack of credibility that has emerged as he has tried to distance himself from his record and prior statements. He has supported government overreaching into women's personal lives. He has memory lapses regarding membership in the ultraconservative group Concerned Alumni of Princeton, and he failed to recuse himself from a major Vanguard mutual funds case, despite pledging -- under oath during confirmation hearings for his Third Circuit judgeship -- to do so.
On Nov. 3, The Boston Globe reported Judge Alito held $390,000 worth of Vanguard mutual funds during the time he ruled for the company in a civil case before him. These facts are not in dispute. When the chief administrative judge for the circuit reviewed the case on complaint, he vacated Judge Alito's decision and assigned the case to another panel. Judge Alito complained vigorously. He has since failed to offer a credible explanation about why he broke his promise to recuse himself from the case.
Every American should shudder at the prospect of an ethically tone-deaf judge sitting on the one institution in Washington not yet in the pocket of the extremists who comprise the right wing of the Republican Party.
A culture of corruption, arrogance of power and insensitivity to the appearance of conflict of interest has plagued key Republican officeholders for the past five years -- from Republican Senate leader Bill Frist's ownership of stock he falsely claimed was in a blind trust to the repeated evidence that Halliburton, formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney, benefited from no-bid contracts in Iraq to revelations our government may be illegally spying on Americans and paying journalists for positive stories. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner has traveled the world, racking up $177,000 worth of lobbyist-funded trips. Rep. Tom DeLay has been indicted for money laundering. Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to three federal criminal charges. Karl Rove still has a security clearance, despite his role in leaking the identity of a CIA agent during wartime. The vice president's chief of staff has been indicted for lying to a grand jury. We need honesty and backbone in Washington, most especially on the court.
I oppose Judge Alito's nomination. I want to be proud of our government again. That can only happen if the rule of law, and the integrity that it requires, are clearly foremost in the consideration of every decision made by the court. There are simply too many writings in Judge Alito's record currying favor with the extreme right that show a willingness to favor government power over individual liberties. How can we believe that he will put aside his personal beliefs and keep an open mind when he has already broken one promise made to the American people? America needs strength now, and America needs a Supreme Court where personal and political considerations do not appear to influence any decision at any time. Judge Alito's nomination must be rejected. And if President Bush could find it in his heart, he needs to nominate someone to the court who will bring us together, not continue to drive us apart.
Comments (11) «
This message from Dr Dean offers the facts we all need to know on this issue. Thanks to Dr Dean and the DNC staff, we can always get the facts and information and skip the spin from the liars and thieves destroying our White House. We appreciate your efforts every day. thanks
Thank you Dr. Dean! I wish you could get on National TV and speak of the wise observations! I
am an older person and have a lot of friends at the local Senior Citizens, and they don't ever know about any of these crimes and immoral acts of the Republicans. Dr Dean, I hope you have the power to get our Democrats on more often on National TV?
freeforall,
I hope you are telling these seniors at the centers, how bad the new RX drug bill is. This should be the best reason for the elderly to all vote Democratic next fall.
This Scalito guy is just another one of Junior's extremist crony crooks. He can't wait till he gets in there so he can legalize secrect wiretaps, secrect arrests, secrect prisons, and secrect torture. These people are anti-American.
Excellent, Dr. Dean. This is a fight we must win. Your leadership is commendable. Thank you...you're off to a good start.
How many red herrings will you throw? Bill Clinton lied to a federal judge (a felony) in an attempt to lessen his liability in a court case and you advanced this as a reason he was a great man. Now you expect me to believe Judge
Alito should be condemned for lying to the public. Good God, man! Every politician in Washington does that multiple times....daily.
Since 1953, Americans have been watching the classic movie Shane, believing that the homesteaders were the good guys. Thank God Shane showed up to help them fight the greedy cattle rancher. But, a conservative Supreme Court says that all these years we were wrong. We were rooting for the wrong guys. If the government decided that the ranchers were going to improve the property, then Shane & the homesteaders were the bad guys. Huh? That decision, in my opinion, should open the eyes of most Americans as to what happens when the Court leans too far in any one direction. That decision is consistent with no-bid contracts for Halliburton, the Jack Abramoff situation, and tax breaks for companies giving their top executives yearly multi-million dollar bonuses. Given all that is happening today, the war in Iraq, torture allegations, rendition, detainees held without trials, domestic spying, etc. America needs honest answers to these questions. Alito may not be the right guy for this job at this time.
oppostion party has a point. all persons elected should uphold the publics trust. lying under oath is a felony but lying to congress (in this case for going to war) is treason and when originally enacted as a crime was punishable by death. so be careful when you cast stones...one of them might hit GW.
The only thing that remains a "fly in the ointment" about the agonizingly late but refreshing card-house collapse of the corrupt Bush mis-administration, is the public silence about the obvious conclusion that:
WE NEED HOWARD DEAN AS DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT!
Governor Dean, has been absolutely correct about the odious state of politics in the U.S. for years now, regularly vilified by the right-wing media jerks and Bush Administration propagandists for each and every one of his public statements, but never heeded or called upon when it is obvious that his is the one honest, intelligent, competent and caring voice in the wilderness of spin-meisters and pundits.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS STUPID COUNTRY? MUST WE ALWAYS BE SADDLED WITH CROOKED POLITICIANS FOR OUR LEADERS? THE ANSWER IS CLEAR; HOWARD DEAN MUST BE DRAFTED TO THE PLACE WHERE HE IS SO SORELY NEEDED; THE PRESIDENCY OF THE U.S.
Singer:
Gov. Dean promised not to run for President in '08. It was the deal he made to get to become party chair.
If that deal's all right with him, it's all right with me. He can still run in 2012. (smile)
I will call this Judge Samuel Alito and the Fuehrer Principle.
The January 5, 2006 Wall St Journal front page article identified Judge Alito as a leading proponent of the savagely unconstitutional doctrine of the "unitary executive." Whenever you hear Alito or other of his cronies in the ultra-right wing Federalist Society, use that phrase, "unitary executive," they are speaking in what George Orwell called in his "1984" "Newspeak," or what the Ancient Greeks called "Sophistry." Saying something to cover up and throwing people off track to what YOU ARE REALLY DOING.
The real name for the unitary executive theory is what Nazi Crown Jurist Carl Schmitt, called the "Fuehrer Principle." Remember it was the Nazis themeselves who arranged for the fire to be set at the Reichstag in February, 1933, which became the "emergency, emergency," to which Carl Schmitt's doctrine, "The Fuehrer Principle" was applied namely that the HEAD of STATE is the LAW, and can assert absolute dictatorial authority during these so called, "periods of emergency." EVERY totalitarian regime in the West from Hitler in Germany, Franco in Spain, to Pinochet in Chile, to Cheney and Bush in the US have used this "excuse" to make totalitarianism, "legal."
Americans don't like fascism. And Americans are more and more getting the smell of fascism from these quarters. If Judge Alito adheres to these views, as stated above in the Wall Journal, he should not be allowed near any court- certainly not the US Supreme Court- except as a defendant. All Americans should be outraged and demand that these scoundrels be decisively defeated. Gerald Pechenuk cities12345@yahoo.com
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