Justice John Paul Stevens is old and has to retire or die one day, a vote for choice. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is quoted as saying she wants to resign, a vote for choice. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has had cancer; she is recovered, but she her health could adversely affect her tenure on the court. A vote for choice.
That leaves Justice David Souter and Justice Stephen Breyer as our sole votes for choice. Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice Scalia, Justice Thomas, and Justice Kennedy - and whoever may replace Rehnquist, who has been rumored to want to retire - are anti choice, as would be their replacements. We lose Stevens, O'Connor, or Ginsburg - or Souter or Breyer, no one lives forever - and the votes to override Roe v Wade are there. Let us not be naive about who G W Bush will appoint. Choice was at stake on Tuesday. And please let us be spared any comments that Roe v wade cannot be over ridden. The court can over ride anything it wants, and has done so from its beginning. An easy example, Brown vs Topeka Bd of Ed. was a direct override of Plessy vs Ferguson. Of course, there are a lot of issues besides choice. Bush has stated over and over and over that he wants to appoint justices like Scalia and Thomas. These gentlemen are not freedom loving libertarians who are so-called strict constuctionialists, they are judicial activists with an agenda of "undoing" decades of court decisions. There is nothing wrong with that per se. Everyone is entitled to their agendas. What was troubling about last weekend and the election on Tuesday was that these issues were not discussed. Bush succeeded in making those Senate races about terrorism. And even that was bullshit. Senator Max Cleland of Georgia, who was defeated, is a triple amputee because of his Vietnam service with a long history in veteran affairs. The Republicans ran ads against Cleland with 3 pictures: Cleland, bin laden, and Hussein. The ads said that Cleland was opposed to fighting terrorism and was against the president in fighting terrorism. That of course is bullshit. Cleland supported over and over the proposed dept. of homeland security but was opposed to eliminating civil service protection for federal employees - and for that stand, he was pilloried as supporting bin Laden and Sadaam Hussein. (And yes, I saw those ads, I do watch CSPAN now and again...) And note that in the election, none, not one, of the liberal Senators lost. Levin of Michigan, Durbin of Illinois, Kerry of Massachusetts, some of our best and most liberal senators cruised to re-election. Most of the senators who were the targets for the White House - Carnahan, Cleland, Johnson - were senators who had supported Bush on Iraq, Ashcroft, the tax cuts, etc. (Wellstone, also a target, was moving way ahead in the polls at the time of his death. It is most likely that Wellstone would have won had he lived. ) Think about that. Bush attacked and defeated centrist Democrats who had supported him! Now, does anyone think that will engender cooperation in Washington? Other than Wellstone, Bush did not go after any Democrats who had consistently voted against him - Bush went after senators who had supported him! Whatever bipartisan ship there was, Bush destroyed himself by going after those Democratic senators who had voted with him. With bipartisan ship, fragile as it was, shattered, what it means is that nothing will be able to block judicial nominees - and Supreme Court appointees - from reaching the floor. Pro choice Senator Leahy will no longer chair the Senate's Judiciary Committee. So your anti-choice nominees will get on the bench. Your anti-gay and lesbian rights appointees will get on the bench. The Pickering and Owens nominations will reach the floor. Go and celebrate. And for anyone who says there is no difference in the parties, dream on. It is so cool to be above the fray and to be above all that. So, name me the pro-choice Republicans in the Senate, name me the Senate Republicans who voted for the Democratic bill which would have included sexual orientation amongst those things that employers could not discriminate against. Vince
