LIBERTY:
Rights & Tolerance | September 6, 2005
WHEN
"IDEOLOGUES"
ARE
"MODERATES"
By
Douglas Drenkow, "Progressive
Thinking" As
Posted in "GordonTalk"
and "Comments
From Left Field"
A funny thing happened on the
way to the confirmation hearings: Supreme Court nominee John
Roberts has undergone "an extreme make-over"...without
ever changing an iota.
Sound incredible?
Well, just consider that when
Roberts was nominated to replace the
retiring Sandra Day O'Connor, who has earned the reputation as a
"moderate conservative" (CNN
etc.), the conventional wisdom was that Roberts was also a
"moderate conservative" (Reuters,
NPR,
etc.). Those
controversial opinions he wrote or positions he took were
almost always those of the clients he represented, not necessarily
his own; his unarguably meager "paper trail" did not
allow the more broad-minded of us to form much of an opinion as to
his own judicial philosophy (a deficiency, by the way, that
doesn't strike me as a particularly compelling reason to appoint
him to anything, let alone the highest court in the land).
But just a few weeks
later, the conventional wisdom is that Roberts "appears to
be an ideological twin" of the Chief Justice he is now
nominated to replace (Los
Angeles Times).
Indeed, we are
"reminded" (introduced to the notion) of "the
well-established image of Roberts as a young lawyer whose
positions on abortion, affirmative action, school prayer and
more were in harmony with the conservative president he served,"
Ronald Reagan (CNN).
Hmm. Unless Googling
"Rehnquist moderate conservative" or "Reagan
moderate conservative" is not actually an oxymoronic
exercise in futility, Roberts' public image of late has been
subject to quite a bit of "evolution".
Or should I say
"intelligent design"?
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