;)
The Commentariat -- Feb. 14, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Janell Ross of the Washington Post explains why Marco Rubio (& Jeb!) often speak Spanish to constituents & why Ted Cruz does not. CW: Ross is a bit long-winded, but my own observations comport with her thesis: it's a cultural thing. There's no shame in speaking Spanish in Florida; in the Southwest, it still can be taboo.
*****
His hands were sort of almost folded on top of the sheets. The sheets weren't rumpled up at all. It was just like he was taking a nap. He just went to sleep and didn't wake up. -- Resort owner John Poindexter, who found Antonin Scalia's body
Gary Martin & Guillermo Contreras of the San Antonio (Texas) Express-News: "Associate Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead of apparent natural causes Saturday on a luxury resort in West Texas, federal officials said. Scalia, 79, was a guest at the Cibolo Creek Ranch, a resort in the Big Bend region south of Marfa.... A federal official who asked not to be named said there was no evidence of foul play and it appeared that Scalia died of natural causes." ...
... Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Justice Antonin Scalia, whose transformative legal theories, vivid writing and outsize personality made him a leader of a conservative intellectual renaissance in his three decades on the Supreme Court, was found dead on Saturday at a resort in West Texas, according to a statement from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. He was 79.... The cause of death was not immediately released." ...
... CW: My general policy, here & in life, is not to speak ill of the recently dead, out of respect for their families. I do not hold contributors to that standard. This courtesy does not extend to the deceased's philosophical allies, who even now must be conjuring conspiracy theories that place the cause of death upon a certain Kenyan-born emperor who should under no circumstances be allowed to appoint a successor. The San Antonio Express-News reports that Justice Scalia was with a party of about 40 people. It will be interesting to find out who-all was in that party, so we can develop risible conspiracy theories of our own. ...
... Mark Landler & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Within hours of Justice Scalia's death, both sides began laying the groundwork for what could be a titanic confirmation struggle fueled by ideological interest groups. The surprise opening also jolted the presidential campaign hours before a Republican debate in South Carolina, shifting the conversation toward the priorities each candidate would have in making such a selection." ...
... The New York Times is running "live updates" of developments related to Justice Scalia's death. They should have thunk up another headline for the page. @8:48 pm ET: "President Obama, in his first public comments after Justice Antonin Scalia's death, announced that he would nominate a replacement, overriding Republicans' contentions that any nomination should wait until after the next president takes office":
... Dylan Matthews of Vox names some likely candidates for nomination. ...
@7:22 pm: "Ben Carson, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, joined other members of his party in arguing that President Obama should not nominate a successor to Justice Antonin Scalia."
@ 7:11 pm: "The Thurmond Rule -- an unwritten rule, not legally binding -- holds that a judicial nominee should not be confirmed in the months leading up to an election. It has its origins in June 1968, when Senator Strom Thurmond, Republican of South Carolina, blocked President Lyndon B. Johnson's appointment of Justice Abe Fortas as chief justice." ...
...@ 7:03 pm: "Jeb Bush ... said on Saturday that Justice Antonin Scalia ... 'was my favorite justice'.... Mr. Bush declined to repeat calls made by other Republican candidates, including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, for Justice Scalia's seat on the Supreme Court to remain vacant until a new president was sworn into office in 2017." ...
...@ 6:54 pm: "Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader and Democrat of Nevada, urged President Obama to nominate a successor to Justice Antonin Scalia as soon as possible. Mr. Reid released a statement that forcefully pushed back at Republican arguments that the Supreme Court seat should remain vacant until after a new president was elected." ...
... @ 6:40 pm: "Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the Senate majority leader, backing the sentiments of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, said in a statement that the next president, not President Obama, should appoint a successor to Justice Antonin Scalia." CW: I'd say we have a Constitutional crisis a'coming in our near future. ...
... Robert Barnes writes Justice Scalia's obituary for the Washington Post. ...
... The Washington Post also is running "live updates & reactions" to Justice Scalia's death. @ 8:15 pm ET: "... Hillary Clinton praised Scalia's service to his country in a statement posted on Twitter, criticizing Republicans who in the hours since Scalia's death have called for his replacement to be chosen by the next president." ...
... @ 8:12 pm: "'The president has said he will send a nominee to the Senate,' Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, told The Post a telephone interview Saturday night." ...
... Robert Barnes: "The death of Justice Antonin Scalia on Saturday plunged the Supreme Court and the nation's politics into turmoil, and an immediate partisan battle began over whether President Obama should be allowed to nominate his successor. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement that the Senate controlled by his party should not confirm a replacement for Scalia until after the election.... Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, joined [Minority Leader Harry] Reid [D-Nev.] in saying that the court should not go a year without a full array of justices.... Scalia's shocking death also creates doubt about the outcome of a Supreme Court term that was filled with some of the most controversial issues facing the nation: abortion, affirmative action, the rights of religious objectors to the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act, and the president's powers on immigration and deportation.
[Justice Scalia] died while on a hunting trip in Texas. The Supreme Court did not reveal the cause of death. The Associated Press reported that Scalia died at a private residence in the Big Bend area of West Texas. The service's spokeswoman, Donna Sellers, says Scalia had retired for the evening and was found dead Saturday morning after he did not appear for breakfast. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. officially announced Scalia's death after it was reported by news outlets in Texas. ...
... Tom Goldstein of ScotusBlog has more on "what happens to this [Supreme Court] term's cases.... Votes that the Justice cast in cases that have not been publicly decided are void. Of course, if Justice Scalia's vote was not necessary to the outcome -- for example, if he was in the dissent or if the majority included more than five Justices -- then the case will still be decided, only by an eight-member Court." ...
... Ian Millhiser has more on the specific cases before the Court & how decisions could play out. ...
... Jonathan Chait: "The immediate and easily foreseeable impact [of Scalia's death] is staggering. Last week, the Supreme Court issued a stay delaying the implementation of Obama's Clean Power Plan. The stay indicated that a majority of the justices foresee a reasonably high likelihood that they would ultimately strike down Obama's plan, which could jeopardize the Paris climate agreement and leave greenhouse gasses unchecked. Without Scalia on the Court, the odds of this drop to virtually zero. The challenge is set to be decided by a D.C. Circuit panel composed of a majority of Democratic appointees, which will almost certainly uphold the regulations. If the plan is upheld, it would require a majority of the Court to strike it down. With the Court now tied 4-4, such a ruling now seems nearly impossible. Even if the Senate does not confirm any successor, then, Scalia's absence alone reshapes the Court." ...
... Richard Mayhew, in Balloon Juice, also has a useful piece on the politics of upcoming (or already decided but not published Supreme) cases, an eight-person count & the nomination dynamic. ...
... CW: I'd like to remind readers that three of the best tactical politicians in Washington, D.C., are Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid & Barack Obama. If there is a way to effectively force a vote on a Supreme Court nominee, I think Reid & Obama can figure it out. Should it require the threat of publication of photos of McConnell & Chuck Grassley in flagrante with a distinct whiff of S&M, so be it. ...
... Rick Hasen: "... this is the moment. It is the beginning of the most important civil rights debate of our time." ...
... New York Times Editors: "The question now is whether the Senate will honor Justice Scalia's originalist view of the Constitution by allowing President Obama to appoint a successor, and providing its advice and consent in good faith. Or will the Republicans be willing to create a constitutional crisis and usurp the authority of the president to ensure that the Supreme Court functions as one branch of this government?" CW: I believe we know the answer. ...
... Libertarian Conor Friedersdorf of the Atlantic lays out why Constitutional scholar Ted Cruz's call to block any nominee is contrary to the Senate's Constitutional duties: "There is no agreed upon standard of what legitimate advice and consent entails. But any standard that rejects a nomination before it is even made fails the laugh test. Few truly believe that the Framers would regard 'I want to wait until the next president is chosen' as a legitimate reason to block a Supreme Court appointment." ...
... CW: Seems to me that Ted & Marco have already declared themselves ineligible to vote on any Senate business. Like Obama, Marco is an incontrivertible lame duck: both are leaving their jobs next January. Ted is a declared lame duck: he intends to take another job come late January. If the president is proscribed from doing his Constitutional duty under some theory of lame-duckiness, then so are senators who wish themselves out of the Senate. Pennsylvania Avenue is a two-way street.
... Steve M.: "... Republicans are largely going to have message discipline. Many of them are going to argue, in all seriousness, that Obama is a lame duck, and therefore not really president, so he should let the next president replace Scalia. They'll say that we're in the midst of a campaign to choose his successor, so even offering up a nominee would be the height of arrogance. The Constitution says nothing of the sort, but these self-styled worshipers of our founding documents will talk as if Obama is betraying American values just by doing his job."
... Benjamin Mullin of Poynter: "How the San Antonio Express-News broke news of Scalia's death." ...
... Alan Blinder & Manny Fernandez of the New York Times describe the luxury Cibolo Creek Ranch where Justice Scalia died.
Presidential Race
Kevin Drum: The death of Justice Scalia has created what now will be "the most important issue in the presidential campaign. Appointing Supreme Court justices has always been one of the biggest reasons to care about who wins in November, but it's stayed mostly under the radar until now. No longer. Both sides will go ballistic over this, and the Supreme Court will suddenly seem like the most vital presidential power ever. If you thought things were getting nasty before this, just wait. You ain't seen nothing yet."
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The Republican presidential candidates faced off Saturday night in a contentious final debate before next week's South Carolina primary, sparring about immigration and foreign policy and attacking one another personally in an affair that verged on mean-spirited." CW: Cruz, Trump & Rubio called each other (& George W. Bush) liars -- nice soundbytes for the general election. And of course, they're all right; they are liars. ...
... Dylan Matthews has quite a helpful summary/analysis of the debate. With clips (which don't seem to load). ...
... Ted Cruz is such a good debater, he can rebut Marco Rubio in a language Marco says Ted doesn't speak:
... Cruz has said his mastery of Spanish "is lousy."
... Philip Rucker & Jenna Johnson the Washington Post: "The six remaining Republican presidential candidates sparred with ferocity over U.S. foreign policy in a debate here Saturday night, with front-runner Donald Trump savaging former president George W. Bush's intervention in Iraq, which helped spawn more than a decade of instability in the Middle East." ...
... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "... after months of watching Trump say things that are racist, absurd, patently false, or all three at once the Republican Party establishment decided to stomp on him for saying things that are basically true.... It was a bizarre and telling moment, in which the battered forces of the Republican establishment finally picked themselves up off the floor specifically in order to defend some of its least-defensible conduct of the 21st Century."
Alan Rappeport: "The two-hour [Republican] debate airs live on CBS beginning at 9 p.m. Eastern time." Rappeport reports on other ways to see or hear the debate. CW: I'll be damned if I join the virtual audience. ...
... CW: Apparently there is so little interest in the debate that none of the major U.S. newspapers is liveblogging it. Here's the Guardian's liveblog.
New York Times: "The Republican presidential candidates face off Saturday in Greenville, S.C., at 9 p.m. Eastern time, one week before the state's primary. There will be one candidate fewer on stage because Gov. Chris Christie, whose debate performance one week ago blunted the momentum of Senator Marco Rubio, dropped out after the New Hampshire primary. We asked political reporters for The New York Times what they would be looking for in the debate...."
** Today's History Lesson. Ben Fountain of the Guardian on political hucksters Pappy O'Daniel & Joe McCarthy. For some strange reason, the Guardian also posts photos of Donald Trump & Ted Cruz within the text. (The Coen brothers moved O'Daniel to Mississippi & made O'Daniel's opponent the "broom-sweeping reformer"):
Oh, what the hell. Tim Blake Nelson & the Soggy Bottom Boys:
Nicholas Confessore & Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton set out on Saturday to blunt one of Bernie Sanders's most potent arguments against her, attacking the Vermont senator as a one-note rival whose relentless focus on Wall Street excess and exorbitant political spending would do little to improve the lives of Americans. The line of attack, laid out at a rally [in Henderson, Nevada,] with labor union members and amplified more pointedly by a video Mrs. Clinton's campaign released on Saturday morning, comes as she is seeking to sow doubts about Mr. Sanders's readiness for office and defend herself as a more reliable and proven fighter for Democratic interests." ...
... Steven Myers of the New York Times: "The State Department released 551 more emails from the personal server of Hillary Clinton on Saturday, including 84 with some or all of the messages blocked out because they contained information that has now been deemed classified. Three of those are classified 'secret.'" ...
... ** Maureen Dowd: "The interesting thing about the spectacle of older women trying to shame younger ones on behalf of Hillary is that Hillary and Bill killed the integrity of institutional feminism back in the '90s -- with the help of Albright and Steinem.... Seeing Albright, the first female secretary of state, give cover to President Clinton was a low point in women's rights. As was the New York Times op-ed by Steinem, arguing that Lewinsky's will was not violated, so no feminist principles were violated. What about Clinton humiliating his wife and daughter and female cabinet members? What about a president taking advantage of a gargantuan power imbalance with a 22-year-old intern? What about imperiling his party with reckless behavior that put their feminist agenda at risk?... [Feminists have made an] ugly Faustian bargain with the Clintons, not only on the sex cover-ups but the money grabs: You can have our bright public service side as long as you accept our dark sketchy side. Young women today, though, are playing by a different set of rules. And they don't like the Clintons setting themselves above the rules." ...
... CW: As any math-challenged cynic might say, I agree with Dowd A THOUSAND PERCENT!!!! It was not only Bill Clinton who betrayed feminists in the Lewinsky affair; it was also the powerful women, including his wife, who defended him.
Politics Makes Asses of the Finest People. The Very Finest Apologize. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "John Lewis, the influential congressman who this week appeared to dismiss Bernie Sanders' credentials on civil rights issues, has sought to soften the ensuing controversy over his remarks.... On Saturday, he said he had not meant to express doubt 'that Senator Sanders participated in the civil rights movement, neither was I attempting to disparage his activism'.... As a student at the University of Chicago, Sanders was involved in the Congress on Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), of which Lewis was chairman. Sanders was also arrested while protesting.... Lewis also clarified a comment made on Thursday in which he said he had known Bill and Hillary Clinton in the civil rights era. Lewis said he 'did not say that I met Hillary and Bill Clinton when I was chairman of SNCC in the 1960s'."
... John Frank & Joey Bunch of the Denver Post: "Bernie Sanders galvanized a crowd of more than 18,000 with a populist message against inequality.... Hillary Clinton's campaign hosted a small event that featured party leaders and teary families affected by gun violence." Read on. Sanders will go to a party & criticize the hosts, to wit: at "the Colorado Democratic Party's annual fundraising dinner..., Sanders took the stage in front of a room of well-heeled Democrats and called for a more inclusive party not controlled by wealthy donors." Clinton, not so much: "Clinton struck an optimistic tone as she focused on raising incomes for the middle class, addressing student debt and continuing the fight toward universal health care." ...
... Yamiche Alcindor : "Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont pointedly criticized Republican officials for recommending that President Obama hold off on nominating a successor for Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court, who died Saturday. Speaking on Saturday at an annual fund-raising dinner hosted by the Colorado Democratic Party, Mr. Sanders said Republicans are overlooking the powers given to the president in the Constitution.... Hillary Clinton made similar remarks at the same dinner." ...
... Talia Lepson, chair of the College Democrats of Massachusetts Women's Caucus, in a Globalist essay: "I am voting for Bernie Sanders because I am a feminist." Thanks to D.C. Clark for the link.
News Ledes
AP: "Turkey shelled positions held by a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia in northern Syria for a second day on Sunday, drawing condemnation from the Syrian government, whose forces are advancing against insurgents in the same area under the cover of Russian airstrikes."
AP: "Pope Francis urged Mexicans to shun the devil and resist the temptations of wealth and corruption Sunday as he celebrated an open-air Mass for hundreds of thousands of people in this drug- and violence-riddled city [-- Ecatepec --] on the outskirts of Mexico's capital."
Weather Channel: "A blast of bitter cold arctic air has brought the coldest temperatures in decades to some Northeast cities Valentine's Day morning."
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Reader Comments (33)
So lets see if now we get a real SCOTUS justice, not a politician pretending to be one.
Minutes after news that the Dark Lord had departed for the sulphurous pits, Turtle Man McConnell announced that he will block any and all Obama nominees.
More incontrovertible evidence that Confederstes are anti- American, anti-democratic.
Scalia would get what he deserved if there were an after-life.
Now the Dems need to act out of character and act. Let's ask, "What would the confederates do?" and just do it. Obama needs to nominate a real justice, and Dems get ready to rumble. It is beyond ridiculous to suggest that the U.S. should sit in limbo for a year because there is an election coming up - there is always an election coming up. If Scalia had died 6 months ago they would have said the same thing. If he'd died two years ago they'd be screaming "Mid-terms!". The party of "No!" to be shown for the craven creatures they are. Would they have demanded Bush have the right to appoint a new justice in his last year?
Scalia's best service to his country was his departure.
@calyban: It would appear that even in death, & ever so unintentionally, Justice Scalia stuck his finger in the eye of democracy. See @Akhilleus's comment above.
Marie
My thermometer, at -7 degrees F, confirms that it is indeed a cold day in hell.
Scalia has met Gunga Din by now who "is sitting by the coals giving drinks to poor damned souls". He will "get a drink in hell from Gunga Din".
Gloria's point is well taken. Were there a Confederate in the White House and a mere couple of months til the election, wingers would tear into anyone who suggested their president set aside his (no hers, thank you) constitutional prerogative of nominating a Supreme Court justice. The president should make his choice with all speed. To hell with those secessionist sons of bitches.
The Republican debate was one hell of a slugfest. Although I've thought numerous times that Trump has really done it now, I think he really has done it now. And the audience! They would be perfect for an old timey freak show.
I respect you, Marie, for not speaking ill of the recently dead! However, your commenters obviously are of a different ilk. Including. Me.
I am glad that Justice Scalia apparently died "peacefully," while sleeping. He obviously was not as hale and hearty as he insisted! I am also glad that he died on a hunting trip--while he was planning to, or had killed some innocent animal--who probably was in a sanctuary. Anyway, (heavy breath), he was a silly old man who judged according to his Catholic belief system and grossly overpopulated our already overpopulated world (9 children and 36 grandchildren--yikes!).
He, IMHO, is one of the Ass Hats responsible for our growing fundamentalism in "The Land of the Freebie." Even though he was Catholic. Everything was about the laws in the Bible and/or what God had planned for us. Because. He. Knew. He seemed not to like common folk very much, though he got along really well with his fellow justices, and (in fact) apparently taught Elena Kagan to hunt. Amazing what people will put up with in going along to get along!
So, farewell Nino. May you find a good seat in your Catholic Hell, along with all of those pedophile priests who prayed every hour and went to confession every day. Your deeds have been, in a different fashion, as destructive to humanity as theirs.
You will not be missed. We are already thinking about what lovely liberal Obama will find to replace you! This will drive the crazies even crazier--quite improbable, I know. But that is how the cookie crumbles, so to speak!
Balloon Juice has a great column on Scalia. Comments are also choice.
https://www.balloon-juice.com/2016/02/13/good-riddance-to-bad-rubbish-3/
Good Morning, Haley Simon.
It's rapidly approaching 4 AM in NYC (currently 5 degrees F - not including the wind chill - and dropping) yet I feel strangely warmed having just finished John Cole's (excellent) piece from Balloon-Juice. Thank you for your recommendation.
Were there hesitation to rejoice over someone's death (my inclination), reading Cole's reminders of Scalia's hateful deeds freed me entirely of any such reluctance. And, yes: The comments are spot on, if not deliciously - and deservedly - irreverent.
Here are two from the many:
"Scalia is what happens when your one black friend is Clarence Thomas."
and
"May he forever fellate the fiery cock of Beelzebub."
That said, I do feel for his family who, as family, loved him and must be experiencing that surreal, dreadful and insanity-inducing upheaval when losing a parent, a life-mate, a sibling, a child - - especially given the sudden nature of his death. And yet . . .
The dude was not a nice man.
I am sure that, shortly, the wingnuts will reflect that God called Justice Scalia home because God wants President Obama to appoint a replacement. God could have taken any of them, but took Nino, who has been the scribe of "originalism." So it is also pretty clear that God does not want a sanctimonious originalist in the seat.
How can they argue with God's will?
Did you see some of the headlines? "Nation in Turmoil"
Huh! Let's not blow this out of proportion. Toyed with saying something snarkier, but...let's just leave at:
I won't be sending flowers!
@Julie, beat you by 3. It's -4 here!
After living a life protecting the powerful with his crosshairs aimed sturdily at the innocent and sometimes helpless among us, Nature finally served the Justice. Rest.
John Roberts' comments on the Supreme Court being tied too closely to politics couldn't have been more timely now. I'm guessing in all the wingnut fervor that Scalia's dropping dead will provoke, with so many classless dumbfucks with giant microphones, we're going to compile a lengthy list of one-liners tearing into Roberts' thesis of neutrality.
Marie:
Please let us know when you deem it appropriate to speak ill of the dead. I can't wait to hear what you have to say.
What a lovely way to die: Having a stay at a tony resort, you spend a day killing something or trying to– you enjoy a scrumptious meal (and probably eat too much––shooting at stuff gives one an appetite, or so I've been told), and at the end of the day you put yourself down on clean sheets and soft pillows, say your prayers, fall asleep and never wake up.
For the next months Nino will be front and center––very few become more important in death than they were in life, but this fight for a replacement is gonna be a doozy. And one big question: What will Clarence do? his voice is gone, now––does this mean he will actually have to think for himself? Open his mouth on the bench? Mean, I know, but he's the one that sticks to my skin like a stubborn burr.
Good lord, are we going to have to wade through all that feminist business via Bill Clinton's sexual meanderings once more? Yes, Hillary stood by her man and in private denounced him, just like Jackie Kennedy, Lady bird, and some others have had to do or rather chose to do. It's OVER! Let's move on.
I read that today's young women play by a different set of rules. I'd like to know exactly what those rules are? From what I've observed, pretty much anything goes.
I love the Soggy Bottom Boys–––added some warmth on this very cold day.
@Nancy: It might be when old Nino's body lies a'mouldering in the grave. But contributors are doing a fine job without me. I salute you all for your thoughts.
Marie
@PD Pepe: As far as I know, Tim Blake Nelson was the only actor in "O Brother, Where Art Thou" whose own voice was used in the film & soundtrack. A classicist, he's also, according to the Coen brothers, the only person in the cast & crew who had actually read "The Odyssey." I find this kind of surprising because "The Odyssey" is a a boffo story, which I should think a modern boy would enjoy reading.
Marie
"photos of McConnell & Chuck Grassley in flagrante with a distinct whiff of S&M,"...Now that's a vision to spit one's Sunday morning coffee!
My next door neighbor is a J.D. with the DoJ. Our over-the-back-fence conversation this frigid morning:
Me, "Hear about Scalia?"
She, "Not to 'speak ill of the dead', but I despised that man... his every ruling..."
Speaks for me.
Dowd: "Young women today, though, are playing by a different set of rules..."
Here's, I think, a very fine essay by one of them:
http://www.theglobalist.com/bernie-sanders-election-politics/
For me the most disturbing element of Scalia's jurisprudence was his brilliance. He wrote clearly, well, often wittily, and according to my lawyer son produced many of the most closely reasoned opinions issued during his time--his early years anyway-- on the court.
And that's disturbing. Vastly so, because it's a reminder that the comfort I tend to take in thinking my political enemies are dumb is often mistaken.
But they do not always do what they do and say what they say because they are stupid, and differences in opinion (about the values at the heart of democracy, for instance) often originate and reside in parts of ourselves that have little to do with how much we know or how well or poorly might think.
In places far darker and certainly not accessible to reason.
As I said, disturbing.
Scalia was a true Catholic. His opinions were based on the 'original'.
Either 2000 years ago or in the SCOTUS 250 years ago. He knew what the founders thought about gay rights just as he knew what his god said about it. Oh wait, his god never said anything about it. I also would like to know his god's opinion of firearms, gay marriage, climate change and a few other things that never existed since his god wrote his last comments. That is the game of religion. The 'devote' always know what their god thinks about everything. Or in other words, an excuse to hate and lie.
I forgot to mention that the person who will suffer the most from Scalia's death is Clarence Thomas who will now have to make his own decisions.
Scalia was an "originalist" when it suited his own wing nut political views. When originalism didn't support those views he totally abandoned that approach.
Case in point, in Heller, he completely ignored the controlling phrase "well regulated militia," which was deliberately inserted by the drafters to make clear that the private possession of muskets and powder and ball pistols was only protected in the context of a militia that at the time was principally designed to smother any possible slave revolts.
The phrase "well regulated" in 1789-91, was most commonly associated with the daily practice of adjusting the notoriously idiosyncratic clocks of the day. The clear implication of the drafters in adopting that phrase was to liken private possession of firearms to making sure clocks could fulfill their function.
A true "originalist" would have dealt with this clear manifestation of the Founders' intent. Scalia did not.
The headline in the Daily Onion says it all:
"Justice Scalia Dead Following 30-Year Battle With Social Progress."
http://www.theonion.com/graphic/justice-scalia-dead-following-30-year-battle-socia-52356
He made himself famous and made himself infamous. No need to waste time feeling bad at the loss of the guy. Better to spend energy fixing the Supreme Court, which was/is broken, and now is inoperable. The king is dead. Long live the king.
MoDo & Today's NYTimes -
I find Ms. Dowd's offering both outrageously ironic and infuriating, as she self-righteously assigns blame to Ms. Steinem and other "feminists" for dissing younger women . . .
Please. Let us not forget the snarky pleasure MoDo derived from her weekly "slut-shaming" of Monica Lewinsky.
For a time, Ms. Lewinsky moved into a building just a few blocks from me. I once found myself alongside her while we both shopped at the health food store I frequent, and was stunned by her extraordinary physical beauty. She looked nothing like the photos or videos that were dominating our "news" at that time. She looked younger. And quite vulnerable . . . No surprise there, as The Media had been camping-out in front of her building and hounded her, daily.
One afternoon, I approached the crew and recommended that they stop stalking Ms. Lewinsky, move off of the sidewalk (they were blocking the entrance to a grocery store and the avenue's traffic) and find themselves a more worthy scoop - - like the homeless man I gestured toward who was begging just a few feet away.
One of the (unseen) cameramen (I had told them *not* to film me) kept rolling, as I discovered on the nightly news, and had cleverly edited his footage, with fictional narrative, to make it appear as though A) I wanted Ms. Lewinsky - not them - out of our neighborhood, and B) attributed my parting Middle Finger Salute to her.
In a recent post, I referenced having had a few 'bones to pick' with Steinem: Her (mis)treatment of Monica, while defending Billy's Willie, spoke to that.
I'm guessing that Dowd's ever-hot-on-trail attacks of anything "Clinton" has (conveniently) dimmed the memory of her own gleeful efforts to destroy younger woman.
I suppose it wouldn't be appropriate to suggest to the xtian right that god wanted BO to appoint the next SC Justice, and for that Justice to be a liberal, and that's why Scalia had to go now? They ascribe so much omniscience to this god, who clearly chose judiciously.
PS: I use xtian to describe people who have nothing 'christ-like' about them.
Walking while black. Driving while black. And now, appointing
while black. What next while black, or latino, or gay? And who
was it that said "remember the supremes"? Time will tell.
Forrest -
"Walking while black. Driving while black. And now, appointing
while black."
Good One!
@Forrest Morris-
It was I, I think, who began the mantra, "Remember the Supremes," a couple of years ago. Little did I (or any of us) know that Scalia would buy the farm and give us that opportunity.
It has occurred to me that if Obama nominated Anita Hill to fill Scalia's seat, Clarence Thomas would have (another) psychotic episode. My scenario: "He would go to bed, hit his head, and not get up in the morning." Just like his mentor! My real concern, however, is that now that Nino is dead, who will take Clarence to Opus Dei meetings? They always went together. In fact, it was through his close relationship with Scalia that Thomas converted to Catholicism. He must take comfort in knowing that he will one day cross the rainbow bridge and meet his special friend in their holy Catholic Hell.