Tuesday, November 15, 2005
When Does The Cock Crow?
No, that's not a quasi-obscene headline.
It's a reference to the latest news that Judge Alito is distancing himself from a 1985 anti-abortion memo:
It still doesn't change the fact that he chose to deny his best friend, "rabbi" and Lord.
If Alito "downplays" his '85 self, he may be able to survive the confirmation (there's a great word!) process, get to the Supreme Court and "do the right thing" (in the view of his most earnest supporters). Apparently, the cock crows in the first trimester of court confirmations.
There is something unseemly about it.
He is following Peter in wanting to do good, but choosing deception in the short term.
A Republican friend notes,
Everyone swears to "tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth" when they testify, yet members of highest court will say a blatant falsehood to get on it.
Don't get me wrong; conservatives have been forced into this corner. Liberals want to have it both ways: They charge conservatives with having a pro-life litmus test, while denying their own pro-choice one. They say ideology shouldn't matter, but do everything they can to paint certain conservatives as "too ideological."
Liberals lie about their motives; conservatives lie about their principles.
A dishonest political system helps construct a bench of dishonest individuals.
The whole thing is disgraceful.
UPDATE: Edit done to correct typo transferred from e-mail quote.
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It's a reference to the latest news that Judge Alito is distancing himself from a 1985 anti-abortion memo:
[Sen. Dianne] Feinstein met with President George W. Bush's nominee to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor amid new concerns over the application in which Alito, then a lawyer in the Reagan administration, wrote he backed its efforts to ban abortion and racial quotas.So, do we now call him Samuel "Simon Peter" Alito?
"'It was different then'," Feinstein quoted Alito as saying. "'I was an advocate seeking a job, a political job and that was 1985'."
"'I'm now a judge. I've been on the circuit court for 15 years. It's very different. I'm not an advocate'," Feinstein said.
(2a) Mark 14:26-31Now, one could argue that Peter took a calculated risk that, in the short term, kept him alive long enough to become "the rock" upon which Christ's church would be built.
/26/ When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. /27/ And Jesus said to them, "You will all become deserters; for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.' /28/ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." /29/ Peter said to him, "Even though all become deserters, I will not." /30/ Jesus said to him, "Truly I tell you, this day, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times." /31/ But he said vehemently, "Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you." And all of them said the same.
= Matt 26:30-35
/30/ When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. /31/ Then Jesus said to them, "You will all become deserters because of me this night; for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.' /32/ But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee." /33/ Peter said to him, "Though all become deserters because of you, I will never desert you." /34/ Jesus said to him, "Truly I tell you, this very night, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times." /35/ Peter said to him, "Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you." And so said all the disciples.
It still doesn't change the fact that he chose to deny his best friend, "rabbi" and Lord.
If Alito "downplays" his '85 self, he may be able to survive the confirmation (there's a great word!) process, get to the Supreme Court and "do the right thing" (in the view of his most earnest supporters). Apparently, the cock crows in the first trimester of court confirmations.
There is something unseemly about it.
He is following Peter in wanting to do good, but choosing deception in the short term.
A Republican friend notes,
"[F]irst we had Judge Robert's "Those weren't MY ideas. I was just doing a job,"I would say that it is, arguably, even worse than that. I think the current environment makes principled individuals deny who they are. Alito is going to have to downplay his comments to get confirmed -- which means that, just like Clarence Thomas, you have someone who is essentially lying to get on the highest court in the land. (Does anyone truly believe that Thomas never even "discussed" Roe v. Wade while in law school?)
argument and now Alito "Hey, I just wanted a job and meet chicks" argument
makes it look like the much romanticized "Reagan Revolution" was nothing but Bonfire of the Vanities . . . . doesn't it? Did ANYONE believe in what they were doing? Is that why "Conservative Government" is right up with the Unicorn as far as mythical creatures?"
Everyone swears to "tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth" when they testify, yet members of highest court will say a blatant falsehood to get on it.
Don't get me wrong; conservatives have been forced into this corner. Liberals want to have it both ways: They charge conservatives with having a pro-life litmus test, while denying their own pro-choice one. They say ideology shouldn't matter, but do everything they can to paint certain conservatives as "too ideological."
Liberals lie about their motives; conservatives lie about their principles.
A dishonest political system helps construct a bench of dishonest individuals.
The whole thing is disgraceful.
UPDATE: Edit done to correct typo transferred from e-mail quote.
