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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (9842)	1/26/2006 11:16:47 AM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 541667

With Republican control of Congress going nowhere for the conservative agenda and the White House in doubt by 2009, the SC was the only game in town for the hardcore right. I know you don't mean to frame it this way, Dale, but it could be read that the far right is only now taking SC nominations seriously. Because they think they will lose majorities in the House and Senate and because they may lose the presidency in 08. But my reading is that they've considered the SC the crown jewel for a very long time. I became aware of its public incarnation with the Bork nomination; then their anger at Bush, the father, for the Souter nomination; and their growing anger at Kennedy (and to some extent, O'Connor) as heretics (you could read it that way). Moreover, the strategy, for some time, at least since the Thomas nomination, seems to be to put forward candidates who reflect only the very far right of the Rep party and who are young enough to be on the court for a long time.

To: Dale Baker who wrote (9842)	1/26/2006 12:35:42 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 541667

Conservatives know they can't build a durable majority at the ballot box (too bad they can't gerrymander the electoral college too), so the Supreme Court is one of the only major venues where they can try to install a dominant clique that suits their agenda To the extent this is true it is largely a response to the fact that liberals imposed a lot of their agenda through the courts over the years in a similar fashion. If this really is the conservative plan I imagine it will be less effective then the earlier liberal attempt. Some of the liberal changes might be rolled back, but the majority would not be (and in fact a decent fraction of the earlier liberal successes would probably be thinks many conservatives and most Republicans would not want to roll back, at least not anymore) In fact I would say it is less about imposing an agenda and more about resisting an agenda. Conservatives in general are probably more sanguine about their long run success in the ballot box than you are of their success (and perhaps more sanguine than they should be). However many of them are afraid that without a conservative court their success will be rolled back through non-electoral methods, and even that the courts will continue to push the liberal agenda further (for example with decisions favoring gay marriage). Tim

To: Dale Baker who wrote (9842)	1/26/2006 1:48:40 PM
From: neolib	Respond to of 541667

... SC was the only game in town for the hardcore right It is really the one they are most interested in. Abortion, property rights (in the anti-environmental sense), intrusive religion in the public sphere especially in education, and guns are all issues where a more liberal court is seen as a threat to conservative values. Reducing taxes and welfare (of the non farm variety) are also important for them and fall more under the Presidency & Congress. But the court has jurisdiction over the really dear items.