The Nose on Her Face

Blast it all! Avedon Carol said it before I got around to it:

I am so sick of hearing some "liberal" Senator telling us that something that was as plain as the nose on my face (and mine of all noses!) is just becoming clear, now that it's too late. Like Ted Kennedy, explaining away the fact that the Senate confirmed two complete flaming loonies to the Supreme Court because "Roberts and Alito Misled Us"[.]

This time, it's Kennedy whining that Justices Stevens and Alito "misled us". Our response is this: "Honey, they may have misled you, but they didn't mislead us!"

Is this the newest excuse in politics: "oops, I got bad information — who knew?" when, in fact, the facts are abundantly clear. I was super irritated with that whole thing last year about how nobody knew that Iraq didn't have WMDs, nor did anyone realize that the Bush Administration was making up all the "facts" they used to start a war. Most of us who are not Democrats in Congress knew the truth.

For some time we have known the truth about voting "irregularities", about Katrina response, about the new Medicare drug plan, about global warming, about … you name it and we non-Democrats in Congress have known the truth.

In particular, we knew the truth about Stevens and Alito; they did not appear out of nothing, they had voting records and opinions they had written, and their positions were as clear as the reactionary nose on Robert Bork's face.

Nobody was misled who was not a Democratic Senator, and they didn't have have to be "misled" if they didn't want to. In most instances, candidates in a job interview who refuse to answer any of the questions usually don't get the job! Without adequate answers to questions about their judicial philosophy, no Democrat had to be "miseld" into confirming their nominations.

This excuse just won't work anymore as a pre-election approach to absolution. Speak the truth, Ted: you were wrong not to vote against the nominations, you're sorry about it, and you won't let it happen again.

Posted on August 1, 2006 at 14.30 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Current Events, Splenetics

6 Responses

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  1. Written by beepbeepitsme
    on Wednesday, 2 August 2006 at 09.42
    Permalink

    The usual excuses I hear from politicans here.

    1. I don't recall.
    2. I wasn't told.
    3. I was misled.
    4. I didn't want to miss lunch.
    5. That information wasn't available to me at the time.
    6. That information wasn't available to me at the time because I didn't want to miss lunch.

  2. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Wednesday, 2 August 2006 at 22.28
    Permalink

    I read Kennedy's op-ed much differently. I don't see him whining, but rather issuing an "I told you so" and cautionary note about the need for reform.

    Keep in mind, Kennedy didn't vote for Alito. Sens. Byrd, Conrad, Johnson, and Ben Nelson did vote for Alito. They're all from conservative or right-leaning states. Polls showed most Americans favored confirmation of Roberts and Alito.

    (I think Kennedy voted for Roberts to get his floor vote, then voted nay on confirmation. I'm not absolutely sure.)

    Here's what Kennedy wants to see reformed:

    "The confirmation process became broken because the Bush administration learned the wrong lesson from the failed Bork nomination and decided it could still nominate extremists as long as their views were hidden. To that end, it insisted that the Senate confine its inquiry largely to its nominees' personal qualities.

    The administration's tactics succeeded in turning the confirmation hearings for Roberts and Alito into a sham."

    It seems to me Kennedy is rightly chargrined about how Roberts and Alito misled all senators.

    On your larger, overall point public officials are too willing to utter the "Who knew?" copout, I agree.

  3. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Wednesday, 2 August 2006 at 22.33
    Permalink

    Ugh! I just cringed at seeing that I mistyped "chargrined." On further thought, maybe that would make a good coined word: a combining form for burned and chagrined!

  4. Written by jns
    on Thursday, 3 August 2006 at 16.27
    Permalink

    Normally I might go ahead and silently make the correction, but I agree with you that "chargrined" it too useful to edit it out.

  5. Written by jns
    on Thursday, 3 August 2006 at 18.52
    Permalink

    BeepBeep: these days the list seems to be getting so long that it's hard to know when to stop. Who would have thought "plausible deniability" would degenerate into such silliness?

  6. Written by Avedon
    on Wednesday, 23 August 2006 at 09.41
    Permalink

    Wait, Kennedy did try to get the Dems to filibuster Alito – I was just annoyed at the almost-forgiving way the article was written, as if people had an out for not having fought this nomination.

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