Bush's Not-So-Supreme Pick

So, I was listening to Air America yesterday (and you should have been too), specifically the best show on the network, the Randi Rhodes Show, and she said something I had to chuckle at. She said, "while all of the press has been focusing on the new Supreme Court Nominee being Edith Hollan Jones, I guarantee you it will not be her. It will be someone more controversial, and much less moderate."

What, praytell was Randi's reasoning for this? What did she know that most of the corporate press didn't know? Everyone was sure it would be the judge from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. It was the worst kept secret in Washington! You might even say it was LEAKED to the press (yeah Karl Rove, I'm looking at your doughy face when I say that).
Randi when on: "Bush is not going to pick someone moderate because he needs some type of media and public distraction from the Karl Rove case - he'll pick someone much more controversially conservative."

Then last night the nomination, oddly covered in the Prime Time News media, saddened progressives and made conservatives fire up the 'ol Cross-on-the-Lawn in celebration. Bush's pick? Jacques Chirac of France.

Just kidding. As everyone knows by now, John G. Roberts "Joonya" is Bush's conservative, reproductive rights-hating nominee. Attention women: a note has just been passed from your brain to your uterus, and has been intercepted. The note says, "hey, our relationship was fun while it lasted, but you're on your own now kid. You don't need me anymore when you've got the government telling you what to do."

Ahh yes, the Republican conservatives, who swear up and down they're for less government, won't let those with breasts (man-boobs excluded) decisions about their own reproductive health that will dramatically effect the rest of their lives. They also won't let you die when your time has come either...which basically means they're pro-life before you're born and as you're about to go, but to all of us stuck 80 years or so in between - well those silly constitutionally protected rights have been flushed right out your feeding tube.

In terms of what Americans feel is important to them relating to the Supreme Court, nothing gets more attention than abortion. Flag burning? Who cares?. The Death Penalty? Hey I don't plan on killing anyone, doesn't affect me. Affirmative action? Hell my name is John Anglosaxon Whitey - the number of black and hispanic students getting into law school isn't even on my radar. What's that you say though? The 15 year old part-time syrup girl at IHOP decided she couldn't afford to bring an underweight child into this world and made a decision on her own? To that I say her and her doctor get the same death penalty I just said I didn't care about!

Of course when Bush got on tv last night, and turned to the enemies on his political left as well as those in the center, and gave them the finger...I mean, announced his nominee, people on both sides jumped all over the opportunity to denounce or give raucous applause to the target of his appointment, and the jeers or cheers centered all around fetuses.

So what does our new, devilishly handsome jurist have to say about women's reproductive rights as it concerns Roe v. Wade?

"We continue to believe that Roe was wrongly decided and should be overruled." -- Roberts, in a 1991 Supreme Court brief he co-wrote for the first Bush administration, while he was principal deputy solicitor general. He has also said abortion rights have, "no support in the text, structure, or history of the Constitution."

Aww, cute. Doesn't he just make the ladies swoon?

But wait, there's more. His wife, Jane Marie Sullivan Roberts was the former vice president of the women's "Anti-Choice Feminists" group (they really call themselves pro-life feminists, but on this web site we cut through the bullshit - everyone is pro-life, no one living is really against life otherwise they wouldn't be living anymore. Pro-life is just code for, "government gets to say who lives or dies, you and your doctor do not"). Since being a feminist and stripping away a woman's right to govern her own reproductive decisions based on what's best for her is a complete oxymoron, I really wasn't aware this group existed, until I did some research on them. But I'll save that for another blog, since this is about Junior, not his wife.

And, to confuse things, during Roberts' confirmation as an appeals judge, he also stood by the fact that Roe v Wade is the law of the land, and it's not up to him to overrule what's on the books. So let's combine what he said in 2003, with what he said in 1991, with where he and his family are coming from ideologically, as well as the fact that all the conservatives are rallying around this guy, to make one complete statement about how Roberts feels about abortion:

"While the interpretation of the law as it concerns Roe v. Wade has been settled, I disagree with the ruling, and the philosophy behind it. I don't have the power to overturn it unless of course, I'm casting the deciding swing vote on the highest court in the land...one court so Supreme in it's decisions, it can change the law for everyone and no one can dispute it. But alas, I'm simply an appeals judge. Hey, can someone tell me if my 'abortion is murder' lapel pin is crooked?"

If you're now saying to yourself, "you know what, abortion is wrong, and I don't mind stacking the court with others who think so as well," AND you happen to have sex once in a great while, think of this as well: most people and ideologies surrounding the abortion issue almost directly correlate with birth control issues.

That's right. Those nasty, sex-deprived, brown-tie wearing, closet cross-dressing conservatives from the South and the MidWest with the 'abortion stops a beating heart' bumper sticker 3 inches away from their "W in '04" car magnet are the same people - the same groups and the same mindsets that stop cold the development of new forms of contraception, want legislation to do away with the existing ones, and make it harder to find, purchase, and hence use said contraception once the laws do sneak through the cracks.

Does that sound a bit much for you to believe? Am I using snarling, Cheneyesque scare tactics? Ever read stories like this (BC story) or like this (RU486) in the news? Well you'd better get educated, Miss 2-times-a-week-sexual-relations-soccer-mom.

The simple fact of the matter is at the most optimistic, the Supreme Court with O'Conner was 6-3 upholding Roe v Wade, and 5-4 with her knitting away in some Nursing Home. In all likelihood Roe v Wade is not going to be overturned anytime soon. Even considering 65% of Americans don't want it overturned, doing so certainly wouldn't be legislating from the bench anyway, now would it Mr. Bush?

No, it's far more likely you'll see the Right gnawing away at the little things - birth control rights, parental consent, sex education, stem cell research, completely bogus medical terms like "partial birth abortion," all with the "except if the woman's life is in danger" crossed off the list of exceptions. Because remember - conservatives love fetuses and people in vegetative states, but if you're somewhere in the middle, somehow they're just not looking out for you.