Moving the Goal Posts on Supreme Court Nominations



Atrios has a very good post up, about how Bill Clinton handled Supreme Court nominations when Democrats controlled the Senate:

"In the early 90s, when the Democrats were in control of the Senate, President Clinton consulted with the ranking minority member, Orrin Hatch, about SC appointments. Hatch himself bragged in his autobiography that he was the person who suggested Ginsburg and Breyer.

This rather important fact will, of course, be left entirely out of the media conversation on this topic."

There are many factors that have lead to the intense polarization of American politics. But the Bush Administration is the first to have used intense polarization as the sole method by which it governs. Subsequent administrations, left or right, will have to be equally polarizing or else risk defeat by the intense partisanship of the other side.

I point this out because there's no going back to a more cooperative time. The blindly aggressive tactics of the Bush Administration will dominate our politics for many years, long after President Bush leaves office.

Not a happy development for the country.

Posted: Fri - July 1, 2005 at 04:09 PM        

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