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jrjo
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 Posted: 12/06/04 - 16:59 Post subject: Harry Reid on Clarence Thomas
| emphasis added.. article wrote: | | Incoming Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Sunday had harsh words for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. When asked to comment on Thomas as a possible replacement for Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Reid told NBC's "Meet the Press": "I think that he has been an embarrassment to the Supreme Court. "I think that his opinions are poorly written. I just don't think that he's done a good job as a Supreme Court justice." Rehnquist announced he had thyroid cancer earlier this year, and there has been speculation about a possible replacement should he retire. Kathy Arberg, a spokeswoman for the Supreme Court, said Thomas'' policy is not to comment on such matters. But the Nevada Democrat said that he could support Thomas' fellow conservative, Justice Antonin Scalia, if he were nominated. "I cannot dispute the fact, as I have said, that this is one smart guy," Reid said of Scalia. "And I disagree with many of the results that he arrives at, but his reasons for arriving at those results are very hard to dispute." Citing a hunting trip Scalia took with Dick Cheney before hearing a case involving the commission the vice president set up to work on an energy bill, Reid said the justice has some ethics problems. "So we have to get over this," he said. Reid also dismissed Republican criticism of Democrats'' use of filibusters to prevent some of President Bush's judicial nominations from reaching a floor vote. |
I'm not the first to take a prejudiced view of Reid, but to say that one of the most intellectual minds of our time is "embarrasing", "writes poorly" and "hasn't done a good job" sure comes across that way. Because it's certainly not politics that's driving his comments if he's willing to support Scalia. 
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Gogirlgo
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Posted: 12/07/04 - 12:35 Post subject:
Scalia has a brilliant legal mind. I wish he were on my side. Thomas is the other staunch conservative and his stuff can come across more as blind adherence to being conservative than based on actual facts of a particular case. He's definitely not as good a writer as Scalia, but few people are.
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Bill_Sev
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Posted: 12/07/04 - 13:58 Post subject:
One word Racist LIBERAL! Reid is doing a pre-emptive strike on Thomas because he think GW is going to nominate CT as chief justice when the big man steps down!
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Pug
The Movie Geek
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Posted: 12/07/04 - 14:33 Post subject:
Why did you emphasize liberal over racist? If true, I would be much more offended by someone being a racist than being a liberal.
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Gogirlgo
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Posted: 12/07/04 - 14:38 Post subject:
| Bill_Sev wrote: | | One word Racist LIBERAL! |
That's two words.
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RexRacer
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Posted: 12/07/04 - 14:57 Post subject:
Y'know Bill,
It's always fun to witness conservatives whip out the race card. The fact is, I don't think there's much of a judicial literature out there that considers Thomas more than a mediocre-at-best justice. Scalia, I don't agree with him much, but he's brilliant, I'll give him that.
Which, I believe, was Go's point.
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jrjo
Gone Fishin
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Posted: 12/07/04 - 14:59 Post subject:
| RexRacer wrote: | | It's always fun to witness conservatives whip out the race card. |
Why's that?
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robp
Pyromaniac
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Posted: 12/07/04 - 15:06 Post subject:
Yeah why is that? I don't think conservatives whip out any race card any more or any less than anyone else.
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RexRacer
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Posted: 12/07/04 - 15:14 Post subject:
A. Because in general, use of 'the race card' is something that conservatives bludgeon liberals over the head with.
B. In this case, nothing Go said could even be construed as racist. Jurist A (who is white) is smarter than Jurist B (who is black). No generalizations, and frankly, an opinion widely held by many legal scholars and court watchers.
C. It's also funny because whenever I see such banter (especially applied to judicial matters) I have only to think of the 2000 election where the "strict constructionist, State's rights" conservative justices felt fine overturning the State court's decision in favor of, oh, I don't know, their ideologically preferred candidate!!!!!
There's consistency. . . and then there's power!
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jrjo
Gone Fishin
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Posted: 12/07/04 - 15:16 Post subject:
I guess if you find that 'fun', who am I to argue?
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RexRacer
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Posted: 12/07/04 - 15:21 Post subject:
| jrjo wrote: | | I guess if you find that 'fun', who am I to argue? |
OK, enough deviation, back to the original post. Do you really think Thomas is brilliant? Smart, I'm sure, you don't get to be a justice if you're a total dummy, but he's shown nothing of having a great legal mind, as far as I can see.
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Gogirlgo
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Posted: 12/07/04 - 15:42 Post subject:
Well, I think it's fun b/c it shows that the speaker is at the end of his rope, so to speak. He has no other articulate argument to make so he uses this, whether appropriate or not. The one who claims racism merely because we're discussing a person of color lacks insight into the actual issue of racism.
But enough off-topic. I haven't seen anything that indicates that Thomas would be nominated. He's one of the most recent hires, and you don't get to be Chief Justice without a lot of time on the job. So is there some citation to the notion that W is thinking about Thomas, Bill?
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Pug
The Movie Geek
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Posted: 12/07/04 - 15:54 Post subject:
I don't have a citation, but I heard an interview on NPR where it was being bandied about.
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jrjo
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Posted: 12/07/04 - 17:39 Post subject:
| Gogirlgo wrote: | | But enough off-topic. I haven't seen anything that indicates that Thomas would be nominated. He's one of the most recent hires, and you don't get to be Chief Justice without a lot of time on the job. So is there some citation to the notion that W is thinking about Thomas, Bill? |
The topic is about Reid. Not sure why all On-Topic threads have to come back to W?  ...and who is Bill? 
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cherylpf
crazy cat lady
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Posted: 12/07/04 - 17:46 Post subject:
| jrjo wrote: |
The topic is about Reid. Not sure why all On-Topic threads have to come back to W? ...and who is Bill? |
Bill Sev, and he suggested above that W would nominate Thomas.
| Bill_Sev wrote: | | One word Racist LIBERAL! Reid is doing a pre-emptive strike on Thomas because he think GW is going to nominate CT as chief justice when the big man steps down! |
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