On Roberts, Who is More Pathetic: The Media or the Democrats?

[Q]

09.21.2005

David Sirota

On Roberts, Who is More Pathetic: The Media or the Democrats?


"...In trying to answer the "who is more pathetic?" question, we can look no further than the to-do over Supreme Court nominee John Roberts for clues. The media is breathlessly discussing how Democrats - especially 2008 presidential hopefuls - supposedly have a big choice to make in their vote on Roberts: whether to vote no to supposedly pander to the Democratic base, or vote yes and supposedly play to "centrist" voters. Here's the third-grade-level question that the Ivy Leaguers in the Beltway media can't seem to even fathom, much less consider: what is "appealing" to centrists about voting for a guy as extreme as John Roberts?

The fact is, there are very serious questions surrounding Roberts' record that go well-beyond just the fact that we are about to make a guy who has served less than 3 years on the bench the most important judge in America. For instance, he has very questionable and extreme positions on (among others) privacy, civil rights, and women's rights - and you can bet that if you polled Americans on these issues, Roberts' positions (or at least what we know of them) would be far outside of the mainstream, "centrist" view. This says nothing of Roberts' absolute refusal to explain any of his troubling views and the total lack of any investigation into his tenure as a hired gun defending corporate abusers.

Then again, you might not know about Roberts' extreme positions both because of the sad state of American journalism, and the sad state of the Democratic Party. Both of these big players have largely given Roberts a pass on these questions and billed him as a "moderate" because he is a smooth-talking, upper-class-emanating, Chamber of Commerce-oozing corporate lawyer from the Washington, D.C. suburbs, who really does have such a nice smile and such a gosh darn nice all-American family and boy is he just so smart and well-spoken...have you vomited yet? Probably.

But even after you think you have choked on that last stubborn chunk of regurgitated bile caught in your esophagus, the nauseating declarations just don't stop, do they? As anyone who has paid even a bit of attention knows, most analysis of Roberts - by both reporters and Democrats - continues to incessantly stress (as if some sort of repetitive torture) how Roberts' "intellect" is unsurpassed, how he supposedly has "impeccable" credentials, and how cordial he is in person - as if the qualifications for assuming the most powerful legal position in America is being a nice, smart careerist, no matter how extreme one's positions are. And that gets us to the Democratic strategists et al whose whole strategy has been to go easy on Roberts and not focus on letting the public know about his extreme positions. This cabal of seemingly ever-present, ever-quoted unnamed sources has made a living off of spewing out the same "strategy" that has created, justified, and perpetuated the decline of the Democratic Party for the last decade. In the latest display, the New York Times today quotes "Democratic strategists" saying that "with Roberts widely expected to win confirmation, members of their party should vote for him in order to appear open-minded and save their ammunition for the fight ahead."

more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/on-roberts-who-is-more-p_b_7657.html