Dean on Senate Vote on Judge Roberts

[MaineDem]

For Immediate Release
September 29, 2005

Contact: Karen Finney, 202-863-8148

Dean on Senate Vote on Judge Roberts

Washington, DC - Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean
today issued the following statement on the Senate vote to approve John
Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court:

"Despite his refusal to answer basic questions about his views and
record, John Roberts is set to begin his lifetime appointment as Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court. Sadly, the White House stonewall means
that Americans simply do not know what type of Chief Justice John
Roberts will be, and must now cross their fingers and hope that Roberts
will interpret the Constitution to protect the rights and freedoms of
every American.

"When President Bush makes his next Supreme Court nomination, he owes
the American people better than the obstruction, distortion and delay
his Administration employed to win Roberts' approval. Whoever replaces
Justice O'Connor will be the crucial swing vote on a wide variety of
issues the Court will face in the coming decades. The American people
should not have to cross their fingers and hope once again that the next
Supreme Court justice will be committed to upholding their rights and
freedoms.

"Democrats are committed to standing up for what we believe and will
fight any nominee whose views fall outside of the mainstream, who is not
qualified to sit on our nation's highest court and who refuses to
provide honest and straightforward answers about their record and
views."

Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee,
www.democrats.org. This communication is not authorized by any
candidate or candidate's committee.

[Andromeda]

1. Dean brings up some good points.

"....Whoever replaces Justice O'Connor will be the crucial swing vote on a wide variety of issues the Court will face in the coming decades. The American people should not have to cross their fingers and hope once again that the next Supreme Court justice will be committed to upholding their rights and freedoms."

The nomination of the justice who replaces Sandra Day O'Connor will be the most crucial one. He/She will be the SWING vote, whereas Roberts just replaces Rehnquist who was further to the right than Attila the Hun. Maybe Roberts is too, but we won't know until further down the line.

We were never going to get a moderate justice to replace Rehnquist and everybody knew that so that's probably why some Dems voted for him. Any vote against him was symbolic anyway and I feel that the Democrats are saving their heavy artillery for the next nomination.