Supreme Court and Liberal fear

E. J. Dionne, a not too very original pundit, thinks George Bush should not expect to be able to nominate Supreme Court justices.

Many Republicans are already saying that since Bush won the last election and since Republicans control the Senate, the president's choice should be confirmed with dispatch. But as former judge Robert Bork wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal, the Supreme Court "is the most powerful branch of government in domestic policy." Today's Republican majority, based on Bush's 50.7 percent of the vote in 2004, has no inherent right to exercise near-total control over that "most powerful branch."

What Dionne does not recognize is that the Republicans also increased their hold on the Senate by four seats to 55.

But, more importantly, Dionne does not think that democratic principles and a republican form of government are adequate for governance. Note his fear that the Supreme Court is the "most powerful branch" of government. That tells you how Dionne sees politics. The Court has too much power, because the Legislative Branch is so disfunctional and so unwilling to exercise its constitutional power to limit the jurisdiction of the Court (Article 2).

If I know Robert Bork (who Dionne quotes as an authority -- what an irony), Bork was not suggesting that the Court should be the most powerful. He was simply describing the way our politics have be working for the last 30 years. A self-govening peopl, govern themselves through deliberation by elected officials and reach compromise or, where compromises is not possible, live with the consequences of the process -- AND THEN SEEK REDRESS THROUGH THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS.

READ DIONNE'S ARTICLE