Betsy's Page
Well stop the confirmation hearings right now.
Lookee, lookee what the New York Times has uncovered.
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Mr. Roberts was asked to analyze numerous issues, though, often under very tight deadlines, and while he was a careful thinker and writer, the time pressures occasionally led to minor blots.
In a proposed response to a letter from Gov. Bob Graham of Florida about the disposition of Cuban refugees from the Mariel boatlift of 1980, he repeatedly misspelled Marielitos (writing "Marielitoes") and rendered the capital of Cuba three times as "Havanna."
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Of course, these days he'll have spellchecker so the Republic can rest easy.
The whole tone of that NYT article is, as the NYT would say, snide. Note these characterizations of John Roberts' writing from the early 80s. Here's the headline,
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In Reagan's White House, a Clever, Sometimes Cocky John Roberts
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Cocky? People aren't allowed to have humorous asides in the memoranda they write any more? What a dull world this is going to be. Look at the cocky things he said:
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The papers here show that in August 1983, Mr. Roberts was asked to draft a response to a letter to Mr. Reagan from a college professor who feared he might land on an alleged United States Information Agency blacklist for lodging a complaint about the agency. Mr. Roberts, in a memorandum to his boss, Fred F. Fielding, the White House counsel, noted in an aside, "Once you let the word out there's a blacklist, everybody wants to get on."
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I like him better already. I don't call that cocky; I call it funny. And I love this thought on a proposal from a Congressman.
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There was also the time he offered a snide analysis, in an internal White House memorandum, of a proposal from a member of the House, Elliott H. Levitas. After the Supreme Court struck down efforts by Congress to veto actions taken by the executive branch, Mr. Levitas, a Democrat from Georgia, proposed that the White House and Congress convene a "conference on power-sharing" to codify the duties of each branch of government.
Asked to comment on the congressman's proposal, Mr. Roberts mocked the idea, and him. "There already has, of course, been a 'Conference on Power Sharing,' " Mr. Roberts wrote in a memo to Mr. Fielding. "It took place in Philadelphia's Constitution Hall in 1787, and someone should tell Levitas about it and the 'report' it issued."
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I assume that this is the case they're referring to.
oyez.org
The Supreme Court struck down the legislative veto about one house of Congress being able to veto an executive action and this Congressman wanted to get around the Court's finding that such a veto violated the separation of powers. Roberts was right to mock the Congressman's idea. So he made a little witticism in a memo to his boss. Fiddle-dee-dee. I look forward to reading his opinions in the future.
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