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malaise

(268,998 posts)
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 08:54 AM Oct 2013

The hooked on Placidyl Reagan appointed Chief Justice who gave George W Bush the Presidency

Last edited Fri Oct 4, 2013, 10:50 AM - Edit history (1)

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/FBI_details_chief_justice%27s_prescription_drug_trouble
<snip>
FBI details chief justice's prescription drug trouble

Friday, January 5, 2007

Former U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist suffered paranoid delusions in 1981 during withdrawal from a dependence on prescription painkillers, according to his recently-released FBI file.

The late head of the U.S.'s top court began taking the drug Placidyl in the early 1970s for insomnia and back pain while he was an associate Supreme Court justice. His dependence on the drug was first made public when he was hospitalized for symptoms related to it in 1981, but the delusions were only revealed in the release of the file this week.
William Rehnquist takes the oath to become chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986 after a confirmation hearing during which he was investigated by the FBI.

A doctor who treated Rehnquist told an FBI investigator the justice had "bizarre ideas and outrageous thoughts. He imagined, for example, that there was a CIA plot against him." Another doctor said Rehnquist "had also gone to the lobby in his pajamas in order to try to escape."

Rehnquist had been taking nearly three times the recommended maximum daily dosage of the drug. His delusions came when doctors at George Washington University Hospital took him off it. Eventually, they put him back on Placidyl and weaned him off slowly until he was cured of his dependence.

The FBI conducted an extensive investigation into Rehnquist's drug dependence at the request of the Senate Judiciary Committee during his 1986 confirmation hearings to become chief justice.

The FBI was also asked to investigate Democrats who were set to testify against Rehnquist at the 1986 hearing, the file showed. The Democrats were set to testify Rehnquist intimidated minority voters in the early 1960s as a Republican Party official in Arizona.

It's not clear if the bureau ever did investigate the Democrats, however a memo in the file shows then-Assistant Attorney General John Bolton, the most-recent United Nations Ambassador for the U.S., approved the investigation and said he would "accept responsibility should concerns be raised about the role of the FBI."
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The hooked on Placidyl Reagan appointed Chief Justice who gave George W Bush the Presidency (Original Post) malaise Oct 2013 OP
Nothing surprises me anymore, and to this OP, I say "of course." The day JFK was assassinated I lost Ninga Oct 2013 #1
Not exactly sure libodem Oct 2013 #2
R#5 & K for, a junkie and a vote suppressor/bully UTUSN Oct 2013 #3
What did GHWB appoint Rehnquist to? JHB Oct 2013 #4
Ronny Reagun malaise Oct 2013 #6
On the subject of Rehnquist: JHB Oct 2013 #5
Thanks for this post malaise Oct 2013 #8
Mandatory drug testing for all elected and appointed officials, at all levels of government. Ikonoklast Oct 2013 #7

Ninga

(8,275 posts)
1. Nothing surprises me anymore, and to this OP, I say "of course." The day JFK was assassinated I lost
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 09:18 AM
Oct 2013

all illusions and innocent and noble idealism that this county was a shinning example of liberty and justice for all....but sadly came to believe that this country called America was like a whore....all purty on the outside, stinky and diseased on the inside.

libodem

(19,288 posts)
2. Not exactly sure
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 10:04 AM
Oct 2013

But I thought Placidyl was an antipsychotic or major tranquilizer? It would make you sleep but it is not a sleeper. Poor goof was likely very mentally ill. Conservativitism will do that. It's mostly mean spirited and hateful ideology.

UTUSN

(70,695 posts)
3. R#5 & K for, a junkie and a vote suppressor/bully
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 10:05 AM
Oct 2013

"The Democrats were set to testify Rehnquist intimidated minority voters in the early 1960s as a Republican Party official in Arizona."

JHB

(37,160 posts)
4. What did GHWB appoint Rehnquist to?
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 10:11 AM
Oct 2013

The photo in the article you quote mentions he was appointed Chief Justice in 1986, and happens to show the guy who was president at the time (on the right, appropriately):


William Rehnquist takes the oath to become chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986 after a confirmation hearing during which he was investigated by the FBI.

JHB

(37,160 posts)
5. On the subject of Rehnquist:
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 10:20 AM
Oct 2013
Rehnquist himself played a key role in both sabotaging the Iran-Contra investigation and setting the stage for the relentless legal assault on Bill Clinton and his administration. In a little-noticed maneuver in 1992, Rehnquist used his power as chief justice to overhaul the three-judge panel that picked and supervised special prosecutors.

The job of leading that panel had been held by senior Appeals Court Judge George MacKinnon, an old-time Republican who had selected and supported Walsh. But after Walsh broke through the Iran-Contra cover-up in 1991 and brought obstruction-of-justice cases against former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and several senior CIA officials, Rehnquist acted.

***

Rehnquist made this change despite language in the 1978 Ethics in Government Act aimed at preventing partisanship by stipulating that in picking members of the three-judge panel “priority shall be given to senior circuit judges and retired judges.”

That provision had always been followed – until 1992 when Rehnquist brushed aside the language and reached down for an active junior judge, Sentelle. Beyond Sentelle’s lack of “senior” status, he was known as one of the most conservative partisans on the federal bench. A protégé of North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms and a former Reagan convention delegate, Sentelle had even named his daughter, Reagan, after his political idol. Sentelle also continued denouncing liberals after his appointment to the federal bench. In one article published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy in winter 1991, Sentelle accused “leftist heretics” of wishing to turn the United States into “a collectivist, egalitarian, materialistic, race-conscious, hyper-secular, and socially permissive state.”


http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/090705.html


Ikonoklast

(23,973 posts)
7. Mandatory drug testing for all elected and appointed officials, at all levels of government.
Fri Oct 4, 2013, 11:44 AM
Oct 2013

It would automatically render unqualified half the crazies unwilling to take a piss test.

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