Run time: 04:24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FObYfF1U8tI
Posted on YouTube: February 11, 2011
By YouTube Member: MidweekPolitics
Views on YouTube: 294
Posted on DU: February 13, 2011
By DU Member: celtics23
Views on DU: 2063 |
From: www.davidpakman.com | Subscription: www.davidpakman.com/membership | YouTube: www.youtube.com/midweekpolitics
Real quick, before we go to break, we've talked over the last few months about the Supreme Court and my position that number one, Justice Samuel Alito should resign for his political activity. I believe he has violated the basic canons of a Supreme Court justice, not engaging in political activity or even the appearance of politically-biased activity. I know those aren't the exact words; I don't have them in front of me. And I outlined why Samuel Alito speaking at political fundraisers for Republicans, rolling his eyes and mouthing, "That's not true," at the State of the Union Address to the president, Alito has become a complete joke. He should be gone.
Well, it's going further than that. Now Virginia Thomas's activities, this is the wife of Clarence Thomas, could actually number one, create... it is obviously a conflict of interest, but it might actually now be dealing with illegal activity by Clarence Thomas. And this is... how is this happening and it's not getting more media coverage? Forget about liberal or conservative...
Louis: Well, let's discuss what's happening.
David: Yeah. Thank you, Louis, for getting me back on track. Virginia Thomas works at Liberty Consulting, and the income that she earned there... this is just such an absurd story. Clarence Thomas is not declaring that income, OK? So the idea is that Justice Thomas should be including his wife's source of income on his financial disclosures. He has not reported his wife's politically involved income for two decades.
And this is not just... if it were just the IRS you were defrauding, fine, that we're used to. That is common in the United States among politicians, as we know. But this is more than that. These are the forms used to decide whether a justice might face a potential conflict of interest based on the causes or companies that their significant other are associated with. What if some of his wife's clients came before the Court in some way? And he's not... he has not been disclosing that.
Now, when this was brought to light, Common Cause brought this to light, and Thomas amended the reports very quickly. It turns out that his wife earned $680,000 working for the Heritage Foundation, which is a conservative think tank, and the Koch brothers are involved there, the Coors family, a number of others. And Brad Friedman from Brad Blog, who's been a guest on the show, said, "If it were Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg not reporting a million dollars from working for Acorn, the right wing would be all over it, and so would the press, until someone from the Department of Justice agreed to prosecute."
And that is true. But this is not just a left-right type of thing. This is an issue of what is the truth here, are we holding people accountable, and explain to me why the allegedly, supposedly, ideally impartial Supreme Court justices are getting away with these things? Has there ever been a more politically biased Supreme Court than now, where people are making political speeches for fundraising, unreported income from spouses for conservative causes is going unreported?
Louis: It's that it's allowed to happen. It's like things like this do not go unpunished. Or, they do go unpunished.
David: That's right.
Louis: So if these things are just allowed to keep happening, eventually, the Supreme Court will, it'll just be no holds barred.
David: It'll be corrupt the way it increasingly is now. That's the reality. On today's bonus show, we'll be talking about, as a result of Donald Rumsfeld's new book, we're getting some access to the real reason for the Iraq invasion. It is stunning, but at the same time, not too surprising, we'll tell you about some of the tactics used by for-profit college recruiters, and plenty more. There's going to be a lot on the bonus show. www.DavidPakman.com/membership. And we'll be back after this.
Announcer: The David Pakman Show at www.DavidPakman.com.
Transcript provided by Alex Wickersham and www.Subscriptorium.com. For transcripts, translations, captions, and subtitles, or for more information, visit www.Subscriptorium.com, or contact Alex at subscriptorium@gmail.com.