Republican Senators have been lodging the odd accusation against their Democratic counterparts that any protest against Samuel Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court is “political.”
An article in today’s New York Times includes this: “Republicans threatened retaliation against future Democratic nominees, saying Democrats had rallied party members to vote against Judge Alito’s confirmation for political reasons unrelated to his qualifications.”
Being a Supreme Court judge is not akin to being a plumber where the knowledge of which pipes to place where determines whether a candidate is fitting for the job. Besides, if “qualifications” were truly the main consideration that interested Republicans, why did Bush not nominate a qualified, more moderate figure than Samuel Alito? There are tens of thousands of such people in the country.
It hardly seems appropriate, at this moment when the Bush administration’s abuses of power are coming under substantial and growing scrutiny, to install in the Supreme Court a figure who would assist Bush in being immune to that scrutiny.
As regards abortion, umpteen nation-wide opinion polls have demonstrated over time that between 65 and 80% of the population believes that women should be free to decide what do to with their unwanted zygotes and/or embryos. Nominating a reproduction-rights foe to the Supreme Court was a move of disrespect against the citizenry. The sentimentalizing of zygotes and/or embryos is an individual’s prerogative, but such individuals do not have a right to foist their sentimentality on others.
We have already witnessed one Bush Supreme Court nominee, Roberts, misrepresent himself at his hearings. Having vowed to leave people alone on private matters, he voted against Oregon’s euthanasia law. Alito’s past record is far more reactionary than Roberts’ and it is to be expected that, if confirmed, he will tilt the court in a consistently reactionary direction.
If the Democratic Senators to whom I have been writing letters urging a vote against Alito did not now speak up against Alito, they would not be representing me and the many people who agree with me. So on what grounds do Republican Senators negatively accuse them of being “political?”
They can rubber-stamp Bush all they want but I am outraged against them that they try to bully my representatives out of representing me.