| NYCTrancefan |
From: http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/2...wN5bnN1YmNhdA--
"Ever since Robert Bork, a right-wing darling nominated by
Ronald Reagan to the Supreme Court, was defeated by a passionate lobbying campaign waged by liberal groups, conservatives have turned his name into a verb with a derogatory meaning, as in, Those Democrats are Borking yet another judicial nominee to appease the special-interest groups on the left.
But Miers, who withdrew from consideration as a Supreme Court justice just days after George W. Bush said her nomination would go forward, must feel a little Borked herself. And her Borkers were fellow Republicans and conservatives, the same folks who once decried Borking as a danger to the Republic.
Miers' detractors on the right will say that they merely waged a crusade based on principles. They did not believe she was qualified for the job, and even though she was nominated for the position by a president they support and appeared likely to vote in a conservative manner, they took the difficult road of opposing her and Bush, citing an allegiance to ideals that transcend partisan loyalty.
True. And foes of Bork were also motivated by devotion to principles and ideals. But the Miers critics deployed tactics that conservatives had previously associated with Borking They didn't just state their opposition to Miers and engage in polite discourse; they mounted a political campaign. The anti-Miers outfit started by former Bush speechwriter David Frum, a neocon, aired negative ads targeting Miers on the Fox News Channel. Anti-Miers partisans seemed to have circulated negative information about her within the media. Stories have appeared about a payment her family--not Miers herself--received for a piece of land needed for a highway ramp that was 18 times the assessed value of the property. Vapid columns she had written years ago showed up in the hands of columnist David Brooks, who pummeled her. Conservatives have employed excessive rhetoric to denounce her.
When Bork, a leader of the get-Harriet gang, was asked last week by CNN's Wolf Blitzer whether Miers deserved the benefit of the doubt, at least until her confirmation hearings, he huffed, "What doubt?"
Moreover, conservatives often blast Democrats for voting against judicial nominees because they are afraid to buck liberal activist groups. They seem to think there is something wrong in responding to constituencies. But anti-Miers right-wingers were pressuring Republicans to vote against Miers and threatening that if a Republican senator did not do as they liked there would be a price to pay.
There are certainly differences between the Bork and Miers cases. (He was a legal scholar; she was not.) But those who care about the court are entitled to fight for what they believe, and that includes ardently opposing a nominee whom they feel would not serve the nation well. Perhaps it is time to retire Bork the verb."
*** Interesting if you listen to conservatives you could be left with the distinct impression that only those who are right wing/conservative and opposed by the left can be Borked, hmmm Bork this.:haha: |
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