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A renowned Democratic Senator opposes the nomination of a judge to the Supreme Court

To remind us all that the opposition of the Democrats in the Senate to the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh (or Justice Kavanaugh as he now is) to the Supreme Court of the United States is in accordance with the traditions of that party, allow me to quote the words from thirty years ago of that great defender of women, Senator Ted Kennedy, as he spoke out against the nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court:

“Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is—and is often the only—protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy … President Reagan is still our president. But he should not be able to reach out from the muck of Irangate, reach into the muck of Watergate and impose his reactionary vision of the Constitution on the Supreme Court and the next generation of Americans. No justice would be better than this injustice.”

Bork was not confirmed, and the verb “to bork” entered the dictionary.

14 comments to A renowned Democratic Senator opposes the nomination of a judge to the Supreme Court

  • Ellen

    I like “bork” better when it’s from the Swedish Chef.

  • pete

    ‘Liberals’ expect to be able to easily wreck the career of anyone who dissents from their dogmas.

    But that only works in the spheres they dominate – academia, broadcasting, the press, the subsidised arts, Hollywood.

    They are shocked and appalled that Kavanaugh has got his place on the supreme court because it demonstrates the limits of their power and that not everyone has to obey them.

  • Runcie Balspune

    Robert Bork’s America was also one were they’d have widened all the bridges in Massachusetts.

  • Julie near Chicago

    Well, I take the confirmation with a large draught of happiness.

    As for the slime T.K., I can’t offhand think of anything good to say about him.

    I still remember the photo that put me right off John McCain. Of him and Lindsey Graham and Teddy yukking it up together. I thought it was disgusting.

    But Sen. Graham did come through like a trouper for our boy. I gather he improved our general perception of him.

    To this point, C-Span recorded an interview that he gave on Oct. 3 for The Atlantic Festival. He talks about his friendship with McCain, who was in “ideological opposition” to TK, which is interesting; but even more so are his remarks on learning to deal with Pres. Trump.

    Half an hour.

    https://www.c-span.org/video/?452361-2/senator-graham-the-atlantic-festival

  • Mr Black

    One thing you have to admire about the left is they always have their eye on the prize. They do not rest for one second in their attempts to change the scale and nature of government and will use legal and illegal methods to bring about their ends. And against a timid and utterly inept “right” they have been wildly successful. Imagine a world where those who stood for liberty actually stood up for liberty in the same determined way the left stands up for socialist authoritarianism.

  • Kevin B

    So tonight I had a really good night out at my local cinema watching Verdi’s Aida as broadcast from the New York Metropolitan Opera.

    Anna Netrebko and Anita Rachvelishvilli absolutely defined the roles of Aida and Amneris, (OK, Antonenko was a bit of a bust as Ramedes in the first act), and although the production is venerable, it completely portrays Verdi’s vision of the opera.

    So what am I complaining about?

    Well, before we got going, the idiot boss of the opera house was bigging up his role in bringing culture to the masses ‘in these times of world wide strife’.

    Well Fuck off, sunshine! You have no fucking idea of what strife is. Worldwide, there are more people living in peace and prosperity than have ever lived before and those that are still struggling to lift themselves above the poverty line are held down by the kind of tribalism that is at the heart of the socialism that you and your ilk blindly support.

    So here’s a hint, brother. Just fucking produce the music and leave the politics to those who understand that individual people are what matters and stupid guys who think they’re smart enough to tell us all how to live are the problem, not the solution.

    But Netrebko and Rashvelishvilli were superb and despite the idiot’s little self-justification, it didn’t really spoil my evening.

  • CaptDMO

    Well yes, but you see, Mr. Kennedy was a Milton School boy, and Mr. Bork went to Hotchkiss.

  • Julie near Chicago

    Ah, I see. Sort of like going to the LSE instead of Oxford.

  • The Clarence Thomas / Anita Hill thing happened before intersectionality became a PC word, but prefigured that its in-actual-use meaning was always going to be: the most victimisation points go to the one most useful to the left at the time. My impression is that women are normally at the back of the PC queue, behind LGBTQUERTY, who are more often than not behind blacks, and everyone is always behind muslims, but whenever the narrative’s need of them is sufficient, women can temporarily queue-jump anyone but muslims.

  • CaptDMO

    Niall..
    “…women can temporarily queue-jump anyone but Muslims.”
    In the US, the victimology sweepstakes is NOW called “Intersectionality”.
    I have ONLY seen it cited (in the US) by SOME “oppresstionalized” (I made that word up) women, in vicarious intellectual-academic settings, that are in desperate need to jump the line (queue jump)
    if some other crab is dangerously close to escaping the bucket and “winning”.
    SEE:Crabs in a bucket.
    https://infogalactic.com/info/Crab_mentality

  • Eric Tavenner

    “As for the slime T.K., I can’t offhand think of anything good to say about him.”
    I can, the assholes dead!

  • Julie near Chicago

    😆

  • Paul Marks

    Senator Edward Kennedy was clearly no-good – he was rotten to the core.