Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The "No's" Are At It Again

" Obama could have nominated Moses for the Supreme Court and the Republicans would be asking for his birth certificate." so said Senator Patrick Leahey, Democrat. He certainly had that right. It seems that the only agenda that the Republican party has is to make sure that they scuttle everything Obama tries to accomplish.

The party of "No" has not come up with a single plausible way to create jobs, reign in the banks, end the wars, or help the economy. Their mission is to stop Obama PERIOD.

And so this negative GOP party are still refusing, after over a year, to approve nominees to head committees requested by the President. The result is that vital work does not get done, the country suffers and the people blame Obama.

Predictably, the RNC is criticizing Elana Kagan, the president's nominee for the Supreme Court even before her nomination.

Following is an article from the Huffington Post by Doug Kendall, President of Constitutional Accountability Center. I have edited it for brevity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before President Obama even finished announcing Elena Kagan as his Supreme Court nominee, the Republican National Committee (RNC) was up with an attack memo questioning Kagan's commitment to our Constitution, asking, ominously, whether she "still views the Constitution 'as originally drafted and conceived' as 'defective'?"

The RNC had to look long and hard to find something to attack. They came up with a tribute Kagan delivered on the death of Justice Thurgood Marshall, for whom Kagan clerked. She notes that Marshall, the great grandson of a slave, viewed the Constitution, which as originally drafted allowed slavery to flourish in the American south, as "defective," at least in that regard.(Slavery)

Kagan quotes a speech delivered by Justice Marshall on the Bicentennial of our Constitution that chronicles the arc of our constitutional progress. Marshall notes that it "took a bloody civil war before the Thirteenth Amendment could be adopted to abolish slavery." He hails the Fourteenth Amendment for "ensuring protection of life, liberty and property of all persons," but explains that it took almost a century for those rights to be meaningfully enforced in this country. He declares his intention to celebrate the bicentennial of the Constitution by recognizing that "several amendments, a civil war, and [a] momentous social transformation" were necessary to "attain the system of constitutional government, and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights, we hold as fundamental today."

Not only is this history unimpeachable, it is hard to imagine anyone living Marshall's life seeing the Constitution differently. If Marshall's speech can be critiqued it is for this one reason: the great Justice seemed unable or unwilling, in this instance, to acknowledge the genius of our founders in many areas, while also critiquing their undeniable flaws such as the willingness to acquiesce to slavery. General Kagan clearly is able to see both the founders' genius and their flaws. In a powerful speech of her own delivered in 2007at West Point, then-Dean Kagan spoke to the cadets about the Constitution and the rule of law. Kagan explained that in a bold break from all prior world and military history, our 1787 founders demanded in Article VI of the U.S. Constitution that military officers and every other government official swear loyalty not to a General or a President, but to the Constitution. Kagan called fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law "the foundation stone of our society," and she gave powerful examples of what fidelity to the Constitution and the law entails.

The biggest difference between conservatives and liberals on the Supreme Court today is not the silly dispute about whether the Constitution is living or dead, it's about how much weight to accord the Amendments that have been ratified over the past 200 years. Conservatives tend to treat the Amendments -- particularly the post-Civil War 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments and the 19th Amendment, which secured political equality for women - as tinkering around the constitutional edges; liberals think these Amendments changed the entire fabric of the document.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More Cacti blooms. Until the Saguaros flaunt their blossoms this will probably be the last of this year's crop.


Notice: After four hours spent trying to change the size of the text I have bowed to Bloggers demand that the text either must be too large or too small. Sorry about that, but I have given up fighting to post the draft the way the original is on my composition. I hope you can read the small print and don't think I am shouting with the big print. (Well, maybe I am.)

18 comments:

Looking to the Stars said...

This is the second time I have tried to post, the first one wouldn't do it.

Good Post!!! I am really tired of the Republican's and them trying to stop Obama in everything he does. They are disgusting. Thanks for the great post :)

Darlene said...

*Looking to the Stars - The reason you were unable to post is because I kept taking it down trying to edit the print size. As you will note on the bottom, I failed.

Leslie Parsley said...

Print size: Readers can change the font size to their own liking very easily. You're not shouting if you don't use caps, so don't worry about that either. : )

Other than that, it's a good piece. Unfortunately, I'm beginning to think some progressives are as bad as the Republicans.

Joy Des Jardins said...

I am so sick of people putting up road blocks just for the sake of putting them up to stop any progress the President is trying to make. What in the heck is wrong with these people? How can we move on and help our country recover from all that it's been through...and is STILL going through? When I read posts like this, I get so upset by the stupidity of it all.

I'm sorry you're having such a problem posting the correct size font Darlene; but it's the message that's important anyway. Thanks sweetie.... ~Joy

Darlene said...

*tnlib - Yeah, I actually know that caps means a shout, but I was using literary license to make a point; not a good idea.

I kept changing the font size on my edit page, but when I posted it the size was crazy. I tried re-typing it with the correct font size to no avail.

*Joy Des Jardins - You always make me feel better. Thank you.

Tabor said...

I have been having problems with the HTML changing fonts and I give up after a while!! I have a pre-programed font size, but blogger only uses it sporadically.

naomi dagen bloom said...

Rant away, Darlene. We old ones have to fill the silence left by young people who seem not to have a clue about the way things are going that will impact THEIR futures more than ours.

And you always soothe your readers with pretty pictures like the cactus flowers.

Darlene said...

*Tabor - Isn't it frustrating?

*Naomi Dagen Bloom - Ranting is my forte. ;-) I need to soothe my readers after one of my opinionated rants.

Hattie said...

It seems to me that more and more inclusion is the way to go. More rights for more people.
These Republicans are on the wrong side of this progressive idea. They want fewer rights for fewer people.
(My word verification is "Unbuting." Now what does that mean? It seems almost as if it should mean something. Do you approve/ disapprove of unbuting?)
Darlene, Whenever I get those font problems, I copy the post into plain text, take down the original post, and re-post. Photos have to be uploaded again, of course.

la peregrina said...

Darlene, I have been very busy in the non-blog world for the last week so imagine my surprise when I stopped by this morning and found out that you consider my blog worthy of an award. Thank you so very much.

(Of course yesterday's post may cause a change of heart on your part. "They" are right, timing is everything. ;) )

la peregrina said...

Yeah, it worked!

Darlene said...

*Hattie - Thanks for the tip, Hattie, but I did try that. Somehow the editing in HTML just got stuck and wouldn't change the large print. I actually have 4 versions on my edit post list. All of them post the same way. I think I had to change it in HTML. I did try that once, but nothing worked.

Anonymous said...

I don't care a whole lot what font shows up, Darlene; but, I know it is maddening for you. The whole thing is legible.
Cop Car

Darlene said...

*Cop Car - I guess that's my punishment for being anal retentive. ;-) I want the post to look the way I laboriously edited it.

Kay Dennison said...

Well said!!!!!!

Darlene said...

*Kay Dennison - Thanks, Kay.

london call girl said...

Thanks for sharing - great post.

Darlene said...

*london call girl - Thank you for the visit. I hope you will return.