07 Oct 2005 Ronald Cass: Conservative Critics are Whiners

Admittedly, the field is competitive, but I think this is the most obnoxious criticism yet of those of us who are wary of taking a chance (again!) with the Supreme Court. (Do read the whole thing.)

Ed Gillespie, step aside.

This essay by Ronald Cass of the Committee for Justiceconcludes:

It’s time for those who have made common cause with the President to give him exactly the presumption that the Constitution does and political alliance should – that he has the right to make appointments of anyone who has the competence and temperament for the job. The presumption is that he has done this.

Now it’s time to stop whining before the next turn of the political wheel gives conservatives something real to whine about.

Better to whine now than when it is too late, Mr. Cass.

The President has his constitutional perogatives, and we citizens have ours: Dissent.

“Presuming” a stranger would be great on the Court hasn’t worked out too well in the past. Pardon us for noticing. And we also can’t help noticing that many White House allies are substituting attacks on conservative critics in place of explanations about what this nominee believes. Given that the latter would be more persuasive than the former, we can only suppose they have no idea. This is not encouraging.

Forget Roe v. Wade for a moment — what are Harriet Miers’s views on the Commerce Clause? I knew Roberts’s because I could read them.

How about an essay telling us about her beliefs rather than us about ours?

Who knows, by the time the confirmation hearing is over, we may love this lady. Or not. (Most likely, we’ll still be guessing.)But we don’t love having to guess and no matter what adjective gets thrown at us — elitist, snob, sexist, whiner, or whatever is coming next — we aren’t ever going to love having to guess.

Would these White House people have us go to the voting booth and make choices about Senate and Congressional candidates without knowing anything more than an outline of their resumes and endorsements from one man and from others who make it painfully clear they don’t know much? I certainly hope not.

A Supreme Court nomination is no different.