The Roberts confirmation hearings are now underway. So far, they’re not making for the most scintillating television — at this very moment, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is mangling his way through an opening statement he’s clearly never read before — but hopefully the drama will pick up once the Senators start firing away questions. (In fact, Feingold’s up now with his opener, and Roberts’ brow looks increasingly furled.) Update: Well, he’s polished…I’ll give him that. After watching three days of hearings, I learned more about hapless toads and the various senators on the Judiciary committee than I have about Roberts.
Category: The Senate
“Trent Lott’s House”…over and over again.
“We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did.” Seemingly devoid of the empathy enzyme in any case, many key Republicans — not just Dennis Hastert and Barbara Bush — seem to be having trouble mustering up a way to discuss Katrina that doesn’t reflect their party’s general lack of Christian compassion. When meeting with young New Orleans evacuees at the Astrodome, Boss DeLay “likened their stay to being at camp and asked, ‘Now, tell me the truth, boys, is this kind of fun?’” Meanwhile, Rick Santorum blames Katrina on…the National Weather Service (to help out his donors at Accuweather).
Stacking the Deck.
“With the midterm congressional elections 14 months away, both parties see high stakes in where blame will eventually fall for the government’s lagging response to Katrina. Yesterday, congressional Republicans tried to get a head start, announcing the formation of an investigative commission that they can control. They rejected Democratic appeals to model the panel after the Sept. 11 commission, which was made up of non-lawmakers and was equally balanced between Republicans and Democrats.” Continuing their attempts to shield Dubya (and themselves) from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, the congressional GOP set up a dummy commission to get to the bottom of absolutely nothing, just the way they want it.
Estate of Denial.
“‘The entire fiscal landscape has been transformed in the last week…The entire Republican agenda of tax cuts, Social Security reform and big spending on pet Republican projects is over. Events do eventually have an impact on Capitol Hill.'” The Congressional GOP confront the realization that they’ll likely be forced to postpone their ill-advised tax cut dreams in light of Katrina. Nevertheless, Catkiller Frist is undeterred, and still plans to attempt a repeal of the estate tax when Congress convenes next week…cause, y’know, the nation’s millionaires are suffering. Update: Frist backs down (for now.) AP and the NYT has more.
Fallen Chief.
Breaking News: Segregationist, federalist, kingmaker, lousy historian, fashion maven, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court William Rehnquist has died. Can’t say I’m looking forward to the Dubya gang getting to pick a new Chief Justice. Nope, not at all. Update: Dahlia Lithwick weighs in, and the nomination calculus begins anew. Update 2: It’s Roberts for Chief.
Mr. Nice/Ninth guy?
“And that’s why John Roberts doesn’t alarm me much. The same conservatism that leads him to decry judicial overreaching in the privacy and civil rights contexts is part and parcel of a larger conservatism that distrusts reckless grandiosity…Roberts cares a lot about looking temperate, and that isn’t a bad thing in a judge.” As Senators Ted Kennedy and Patrick Leahy turn up the heat on the Roberts nod, Slate‘s Dahlia Lithwick argues that, at the very least, he seems temperamentally unsuited to be a judicial bomb-thrower. That’s good, ’cause even with today’s news of a missing civil rights folder and a possible conflict-of-interest in a terrorism case, there doesn’t yet seem to be a silver bullet that could derail this nomination. Update: Dahlia Lithwick reconsiders after pondering Roberts’ “Woman Problem.”
The Lowest Grade of Ignorance.
Wanna see something really scary? GOP freakshow Rick Santorum invokes the Founders to rail against the pursuit of happiness. Yes, Rick, the Founders did care about public responsibility, republican citizenship, and the common good, and they went out of their way to explain that these revolutionary American ideals were most assuredly not the province of narrow-minded theocratic nutjobs such as yourself.
Bolton Escapes.
Well, that’s that, then. As expected (and although he may be late to the party), Dubya has appointed Bolton to the UN ambassadorship by fiat. Well, the Dems pushed as hard as they could on this one, and only George Voinovich ended up seeing the light. Shame on supposed moderates Lincoln Chafee and Chuck Hagel for letting this freakshow get out of committee in the first place.
Powered by Pork.
“‘This bill digs us deeper into a budget black hole,’ said Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) ‘It fails to decrease our dependence on foreign oil. It rolls back important consumer protections. And finally, it undermines some of the fundamental environmental laws that our citizens rely upon.'” By a vote of 74 to 26, the Senate passes a grotesquely pork-inflated energy bill that’s riddled with tax breaks for energy companies and devoid of anything that’ll actually help minimize our need for oil. Great job, fellas.
He’ll make a Fabulist Ambassador.
Chalk up another X against Dubya’s UN nominee: It now turns out John Bolton lied to Congress about his part in the investigation of the Iraq-Niger claim. (He claimed he hadn’t been interviewed…He had.) Regardless, Dubya still has plans to appoint Bolton by fiat after Congress skips town. After all, what’s one more liar in this truth-starved administration? He should fit right in.