On Wednesday, February 23, 2005, at 05:29 PM, Stuart BUCK wrote:
Let me put it this way, since my first attempt was apparently unclear:--
Liberals might be warranted in opposing McConnell, just as McConnell might have been warranted in opposing Kagan and other Clinton nominees. Anyone would prefer that judicial nominees agree with his or her own positions on a greater number of issues. That being the case, it is entirely to be expected that people won't go out of their way to support their ideological opponents. And the fact that people act this way does not at all imply a *lack* of intellectual integrity.
That said, when individuals such as McConnell, or Kagan, or any number of other professors are able to set aside individual differences and recognize the intellectual and moral worth of someone on the "other side," they are displaying a degree of integrity that goes far and beyond the normal call of duty. To praise such out-of-the-ordinary integrity and evenhandedness is by no means to denigrate the rest of us who exhibit the more normal impulse to oppose (or to fail to support) the "other side."
Best,
Stuart Buck
Prof. Steven D. Jamar vox: 202-806-8017
Howard University School of Law fax: 202-806-8428
2900 Van Ness Street NW mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Washington, DC 20008 http://www.law.howard.edu/faculty/pages/jamar
"Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think."
- Martin Luther King Jr., "Strength to Love", 1963
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