Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Stop, you're Kyl-ing me

Although Obama has not yet picked a Supreme Court nominee, Senator John Kyl of Arizona is acting as it he knows all about the choice:
The Senate's No. 2 Republican on Sunday refused to rule out a filibuster if President Barack Obama seeks a Supreme Court justice who decides cases based on "emotions or feelings or preconceived ideas."

Sen. Jon Kyl made clear he would use the procedural delay if Obama follows through on his pledge to nominate someone who takes into account human suffering and employs empathy from the bench.
From the wording, you might think I was quoting another blog. Actually, this comes from an AP story. It gets better:
"I went on to say a lot of things about what I meant by that, and I was distinguishing between a person who is just liberal — and undoubtedly this nominee will be liberal — and one who decides cases not based upon the law or the merits but, rather, upon his or her emotions, or feelings or preconceived ideas. That would be a circumstance in which I could not support the nominee," Kyl said.
Seems to me that a case would not reach the Supreme Court if the interpretation of the law were clear-cut. The easy calls are decided lower down. Liberty, fairness and innate human dignity are preconceived ideas.

Kyl seems to think that a Justice capable of empathy is going to make decisions based on caprice. An inane assertion.

Some psychologists have created therapies around the concept of "acting as if" -- for example, if you act as if you are not depressed, eventually you will not be depressed. I don't know if that idea works, but I can see that the Republicans are trying a version of it.

They are acting as if Obama were a Socialist, a Marxist, a big taxer, a feminist, a weak-kneed librul, a soft-hearted pansy. He's none of those things, but the facts do not matter. Guys like Kyl are all about creating a perception. The Republicans believe that if they act as if Obama fit those descriptions, eventually the country will apply them to the president, despite a distinct lack of evidence.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

By acting as if Obama were really a fringe lefty, the GOP allows him to move farther and farther right without alienating the Kool-aiders.

Angel Perez said...

and the American sheeple are stupid enough to buy this b.s. from Republicans...they have in the past...

Caro said...

Obama benefited from the as if phenomenon during the primary. Many people who should have known better let themselves believe he was a liberal, despite ample evidence to the contrary. It's only fitting that the same phenomenon should come back to bite him in the ass.

myiq:

The GOP is PURPOSELY pushing Obama to the right by acting as if he's some wild-eyed far left winger. It's exactly what they did to Bill Clinton. You'd think the left wouldn't allow itself to be hoodwinked again with the very same trick, but you would be wrong if you thought that.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

dakinikat said...

The GOP is a broken record. All we hear from them is the same old scratched up theme. The frame stays the same, the label just evolves into something more outrageous.

They're still looking for communists under ever bed but they're running out of new things to call them.