HAD ENOUGH? Have you, during this week, had about enough of "the John Roberts Hearing:" thing on TV?
If so, join the club. I'll move over a bit to allow you room on a crowded bench. I thin k even those who admire the concept of examinations with questions and and answers got their fill quickly.
The procession - for it was that rather than a procedure - jelled even before it came to a boiling point with scathing criticism of previous statements - oral and written - turned quickly into a search for any little error or chance remark which could be saved and, eventually, be used and mis-used in seeking to destroy the man. Salient points were put as questions again and again in slightly different words in attempts to catch the speaker off guard with a slight error of any sort or a chance remark or comment concerning previously stated views on subjects only vaguely associated with today's events and circumstances. The man being questioned showed such outstanding skill in repelling such attacks. Perhaps the one most outstanding point of interest for me was that, through all of the proceedings John Roberts, the nominee in the glare of detailed examination, spoke with confidence and clarity without notes of any kind. Several members of the opposition felt forced to make very obvious use of prepared scrips. Opponent Sen. Ted Kennedy, with script close at hand, read what he said. It seemed to have been written by someone else judging by the readers attentive pauses as he read.
It is important that we, as a nation, maintain this and other historical traditions. It is important that we give it more attention and higher historical status. It has become a farcical thing by which political clowns to don their particular sectional prejudice.
Among leaders who have expressed some doubt about our ability to face up to demands of a future are: Thomas Jefferson who worried that the Courts would overstep their authority and instead of
interpretation the law would begin making law an oligarchy - the rule of few over many."
John Jay - our first Supreme Court Justice, put it much more
strictly: "American should select and prefer Christians as their rulers."
Imagine either of those gentlemen saying those words in the John Roberts Hearing Hall!
Where, where and how have we arrived at the point where we seem to be - when everything we have done in the past 229 years is now, suddenly, either "wrong"or "unconstitutional?"
A..L.M. September 15, 2005 [c426wds]
