Molly Ivins: "Excuuuuuuuuse me, that is public record"

[Dover]

AUSTIN, Texas -- Sheesh, all I knew about John Roberts was that everyone says he has lovely manners -- and already I was prepared to be against him. Knee-jerk liberal? No, congratulations to the White House, Sen. John Cornyn, Fred Thompson and everyone else involved in "managing" Roberts' confirmation process. Can't these people do anything without being devious about it?

My first reaction to Roberts was: "Sounds like that's about as good as we can get. Quick, affirm him before they nominate Bork, Bolton or Pinochet." A conservative with good manners and no known nutball decisions or statements on his record? Hey, take him. At least he's not (whew!) a member of the Federalist Society.

No such luck. Cornyn, who I would have sworn is not this stupid, apparently signed off on having the nominee "forget" he was a member of the Federalist Society, and Roberts obliged, which is strange considering his reputation for brilliance and a spectacular memory.

Turns out the guy is listed in the society's 1997-98 "Leadership Directory" as a member of its steering committee in Washington. How many steering committees have you been on that you've forgotten about?

The reason that matters is that the Federalist Society is the ur-alpha-primo ultraconservative legal group in the whole country. Since we have only two years worth of Roberts' decisions on the bench (in itself unheard of for nominations to the Supremes), the information about how this society plans to steer the country can be very revealing of his positions.

So Roberts already looks disingenuous at best, and then the White House ups and decides it's entirely too risky to let the public in on his record as a government lawyer and refuses to release documents requested.

Excuuuuuse me, that is public record. Roberts worked for us, he was paid by the taxpayers, this is not a matter of national security. Where does this White House get off pulling this kind of stuff? Right away, it looks like they're trying to cover something up. Lawyer-client privilege? Are they nuts? Everyone's first reaction is, so what's he guilty of? .....cont'd

http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=miv

[tavalon]

1. Molly, Molly, Molly

Public records are so, you know, 1990s!

Just kidding. I love Molly like no other columnist, except maybe Will Pitt.

[kestrel91316]

2. And Molly, obeying the law is for sissies, haven't you heard???

[Tigress DEM]

13. Molly was my first radical read!

Got Bushwacked and need to get the rest of her books. Love the way she gets all fired up, but keeps a basically civil tongue and sense of humor about her while filling you up on facts you can lob at the rethugs to remind them this country STiLL belongs to WE THE PEOPLE.

[burrowowl]

18. Molly radical!

She is what I would consider true center!
I do love Molly!

[tavalon]

22. Molly?

Heavens no, I think she would see herself as a flaming liberal as only Texas can breed 'em. Yeah, most Texans are red but those of us who are blue, are sapphire blue.

[whatever4]

27. Ditto! :) nm

[wli]

3. Federalist Society is a far right-wing organization.

It's ridiculously far to the right. There are all kinds of anti-civil-rights, anti-choice, and other crap coming from them. I'd not be surprised if ties to white supremacists and Richard Mellon Scaife could be easily uncovered if membership rosters were published.

[burythehatchet]

4. Its the legal arm of the KKK

[tuvor]

9. Link, SVP

You can't post stuff like that without backing it up.

TIA.

[wli]

15. I was careful to limit my claims

I said "I would not be surprised if..."

The goals are in fact coherent, so my statement was an assessment of common motives, as opposed to direct association. It was also explicitly marked as speculative by the phrasing.

(Just being safe and following up and taking responsibility.)

[tuvor]

20. Huh? No you weren't. All you said was "Its the legal arm of the KKK" n/t

[wli]

21. that wasn't me, mine was the post that was a response to

Thanks anyway, though.

[tuvor]

25. Pardon me. n/t

[burythehatchet]

19. you know what perfesser, I ain't writin a term paper for you

and unless the posting rules have changed at DU, I'll use the set of words that suit me not you. see ya. and the same goes for whichever other dude got his undies all bunched up.

[tuvor]

28. Sounds completely ridiculous to me, but whatever suits you.

You make the dubious claim, you back it up unless you don't mind having no appearance of credibility.

You know, "burden of proof" and all that.

That isn't the DU rules, it's just the way inquisitive people behave.

[ooglymoogly]

33. here is your link

if you don't think it reads like a kkk manifesto maybe you aught to read more carefully. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Society

[tuvor]

36. Thank you very much. n/t

[TaleWgnDg]

17. Hardly is The Federalist Society "the legal arm of the KKK" . . .

.
Hardly is The Federalist Society "the legal arm of the KKK" . . . and to so state loses all credibility of that and anything further you espouse!

This is hardly "the legal arm of the KKK:"

1.) http://www.fed-soc.org/waystogive.htm
(its legal structure as a a charitable and educational non-profit corporation)

2.) http://www.fed-soc.org/whatpeoplearesaying.htm
(a list of those who've debated for or against The Federalist Society, and those who love to run-on about rightwing organizations)

3.) http://www.fed-soc.org/ourbackground.htm
(The Federalist Society's own biased view of itself)

And, if you are unaware -- and apparently you are not aware -- there are those business ppl including the legal professionals who are members or merely go to their meetings to network for clients and referrals and don't give two squats about the legal theories of The Federal Society or any other theories.

All that being said, what is The Federalist Society? It is a membership of individuals who espouse and are willing to teach the "originalist" legal theory, so-called "strict constructionist" legal theory, or libertarianism in law theory. One can argue and debate whether those legal theories are bogus or genuine; however, none of them can or should be off-handed dismissed as "KKK."

.

[bobbieinok]

23. IMO, lawyers who join organizations and don't care about the mission

are not to be trusted


also I don't believe they could be ignorant of the mission; the group has been around a while and discussed quite a bit

'there are those business ppl including the legal professionals who are members or merely go to their meetings to network for clients and referrals and don't give two squats about the legal theories of The Federal Society or any other theories'

imagine the RW 24/7 outrage if this were said about the ACLU

the group does have a clear agenda ...... strict constructionist; exactly what the founding fathers said.......since women have no rights in the original constitution and blacks have only 3/5 value of a white, I do not think the Federalist Society is just another professional networking organization

[ooglymoogly]

31. well its pretty damned close

working to abolish the voting rights act...oposes separation of church and state opposes the teaching of evolution and many other kkk dreams. so maybe you aught to do a little research yourself. shttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Societytate...

[ooglymoogly]

34. you didn't expect their prospectus to tell you what they are really

about did you...abolition of voting rights act. abolition of separation of church and state...the teaching of evolution...just to name a few...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Society

[ooglymoogly]

32. they have many of the goals of the kkk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Society

[Nothing Without Hope]

5. So true - Molly hits another home run. Cornyn is such slime.

He was the one that said it wasn't surprising that there was violence against "activist judges," remember? What a slimy Bush toady.

Wonder what they're trying to hide THIS time?

[jbnow]

6. People can't remember everything

Like how could we expect Bolton to recall that he had testified when he omitted that little fact on the form.

People forget things. Like hey, maybe we are on the steering committee of the Federalist Society too, but don't know it because we forgot. We might have children all over that we forgot. Maybe we are royalty or bank robbers, but we forgot. You might deny these things, but if you forgot how can I believe your denials? Or even my own.

[JDPriestly]

7. They are all liars.

No honest person would want to be associated with this administration at this point. Impeach them all.

[Vox_Reason]

8. Molly ROCKS!

They publish maybe a column of hers a month in my local paper, but Will and Krauthammer appear on a regular basis, carrying fasicst water, and yet I STILL read LTTEs complaining of my local paper's "liberal bias" using blatantly Faux/fascist radio-inspired language.

Obviously "liberal" means "anything less than hardcore Orwell, all flag-waving BushCo, all the time." Friendly fascism indeed.

Why don't WE write to these papers who publish right-wing talking points and point out that they're anti-American and actively damaging our country by doing so? Trying to take the high road has cost us our lunch in the past few years.

Perhaps valuing a 2-way exchange of ideas is an archaic idea when one of the parties involved has a cutthroat strategy of "lie as much as possible to achieve the desired enrichment of top campaign contributors and downstream political results."

[Mnemosyne]

10. Molly!! n/t

[bleever]

11. "Mr. Chairman, I'm PAYING for this microphone!!"

Now, who said that?

If you work for the people, your work belongs to the people, Mr. Roberts. What's hard to understand about that for a "strict constructionist"?

[Tigress DEM]

14. OH MY GOD! SO Classic and SO True.

Awesome.
:yourock: :applause: :applause:



I will have to find a way to work that concept into some Peace and Impeach Party CHANT on Sept 24. Visualize the buildings rumbling with millions of voices raised in solidarity. I think about 5 million will do. Which reminds me I better fire up that post so I can get on it and get to bed on time tonight. I was up til 4am and I'm still a little jazzed about a real DEM moment tonight, but I'll be hurting if I don't get some sleep soon.

[Captain Hilts]

26. Spencer Tracy said it in "State of the Union". Reagan stole it. (nt)

[bleever]

37. LOL. Didn't know that. Thanks. n/t

[WhoWantsToBeOccupied]

12. Outstanding. Thanks for posting.

[Dover]

16. I'd love to see Molly invited onto the Leno or Letterman shows!

Seems like she'd be a great guest. Wonder if she's been asked?

[bejammin075]

24. Can Bush recess appoint a Supreme ???

[Pacifist Patriot]

29. I don't believe so.

At the very least if the Constitution had the loophole he'd be a political dead man to exercise it. I'm pretty sure that clause refers to other appointments besides SC.

[madeline_con]

38. Bolton's appt was supposedly illegal...

but that never stops this crowd!

[bejammin075]

39. I don't think Bolton nom is illegal

It's in the constitution.

[Pacifist Patriot]

30. Once again I yearn to give her a bear hug.

[donheld]

35. Ms Ivins is always the best

Her wit is one of the things that makes this whole thing halfway survivable.