At this crucial time in the history of jurisprudence, it is not a good sign that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States appears to be missing in action. The Court announces that it will take up arguments and deliberation on the Heath Care Reform legislation that has garnered mixed results in the lower courts. Perhaps a watershed case in connection with the 2012 Presidential Election. The same day, two Justices of the Court not known for their "discretion" slip out and attend a fund raising dinner for an organization lobbying against the law[and incidentally are paid generous speaker fees]. Now we can all accept that the Supreme Court is an elite club. And these guys were just out doing their usual grifting for pocket money from fat cat organizations supporting corporate interests. The engagement was probably pre-booked.
But even elite clubs are supposed to have some basic rules of decorum and behavior. Since it is the highest court of the land, it is not unreasonable that the Judicial Code of Ethics might be expected to apply, at a minimum, to the Justices of the club. After all, every other judge in the land is subject to those basic rules of behavior. They are really not that hard to follow either. Honest! Most people heard them at home when they were children: Don’t lie, cheat or steal! That can be expanded to: don’t solicit or accept bribes from parties in interest or regarding issues that you have to sit and decide, supposedly as an impartial judge. That would not seem too onerous.
HOWEVER, consider the following news report:
A few hours after the Supreme Court justices met last Thursday, November 10, to consider hearing challenges to the national health care overhaul, Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas were the honored speakers at a fundraiser for a conservative legal group that was sponsored in part by health care reform opponents involved in the litigation.
For goodness sakes, where is the club President Roberts? Is he sleeping on the job? Has he lost the cell phone numbers of Thomas and Scalia? Didn’t he warn them that they should keep a low profile and not be “out on the take” in the run up to perhaps the biggest decision the Court has to make since the decision to sell out the country to corporations in the Citizen’s United decision? Now it is not secret how Scalia will vote. Thomas only has to hope that Antonin and Ginny can agree on what will be most profitable personally for the Thomas family so he can be told how to vote. He has no time to bother with looking up the law and stuff like that, he never understood too much of it anyway. He was more inclined to take the word of “cute” female law clerks that laughed at his raunchy and lame jokes.
But it is going to be difficult at club meetings when you have a couple of rogue members who choose to completely disregard the ethical rules and do so in public meetings. The old wink and nod ratio decidendi of be as corrupt as you want as long as you do it in private parties seems to have slipped the minds of Antonin and Clarence. Or perhaps they have decided that the power elite have reached total victory and they simply don’t care about appearances any more. In any event, someone should put in a call to the Chief Justice to see if he cannot round up the boys and give them a stern finger shaking and talking to. [p.s., if they offer to split their take with him…he should decline]
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Monday, November 07, 2011
Poor Cain; is he Able?
Herman Cain has gotten very testy and combative with the media lately over persistent questions about allegations of sexual improprieties when he was head of the Restaurant Association lobby back in the 1990's. He has changed his story so many times that it would take an accountant to keep track. He tries to put a stop to questions and to direct what the media will ask and what he chooses to answer.
We may recall that other "so-called" candidates thought that they could control or muzzle the media, and that they could choose what was reported. Christine O'Donnell walked off an interview because she could not pick and choose the interview questions. Palin blamed the "lame-stream" media for her being characterized as uninformed and vapid [history suggests that the characterization was more accurate than not]. Now Cain calls the media "nit picky" because it demands details of allegations pertaining to his past conduct and character.
Gloria Allred now announces that she has a client who was harassed by Cain and is willing to come forward, in light of Cain's declarations that he "never" harassed any female subordinate. That was a dangerous public proclamation by someone who knew that there were at least two settlement agreements to buy silence of women who had made formal and specific allegations against him. It is true that Allred is a "self-promoter" but we cannot forget that Cain is one as well. No amount of deflection [that Allred contributed to Democratic candidates] can erase the factual testimony of witnesses. If Allred's client is credible, and the fact that she is one of multiple independent accusers suggests that she probably is, then Cain has to face up to the events and explain why they do not disqualify him for office requiring public trust.
The deflection toward Democrat supporters when Cain has already taken the public position that the leak came from the Perry [GOP] campaign is inconsistent and makes Cain look desperate. The so-called "advisor" [who is white, by the way] that called the current situation a "high tech lynching" certainly did Cain no favors. He should be fired immediately. While race is an issue in some aspects of Cain's candidacy, and he has made it so by denigrating Black folk as "brainwashed" because they don't support his candidacy, these allegations of sexual impropriety have little to do with race. They are no more racial than the allegations against Clinton, Spitzer or Wilbur Mills and a host of other male politicians of all colors and political stripes.
My grandfather used to remind me that: "when you step up to start a fight, don't forget that you have to bring your own nose along. And it might just get bloodied too!" Cain wants to be treated as a serious candidate. He had better wise up and learn that he is playing on a bigger stage than he has ever tried before. The stakes and the risks are all much higher. If he does not have the character, stomach, skills and staff to handle the challenge, he should sit down and shut up.
[Pawlenty and Palin have vanished to obscurity. The same should go for Bachman, but some people are not bright enough to realize when they have lost.]
We may recall that other "so-called" candidates thought that they could control or muzzle the media, and that they could choose what was reported. Christine O'Donnell walked off an interview because she could not pick and choose the interview questions. Palin blamed the "lame-stream" media for her being characterized as uninformed and vapid [history suggests that the characterization was more accurate than not]. Now Cain calls the media "nit picky" because it demands details of allegations pertaining to his past conduct and character.
Gloria Allred now announces that she has a client who was harassed by Cain and is willing to come forward, in light of Cain's declarations that he "never" harassed any female subordinate. That was a dangerous public proclamation by someone who knew that there were at least two settlement agreements to buy silence of women who had made formal and specific allegations against him. It is true that Allred is a "self-promoter" but we cannot forget that Cain is one as well. No amount of deflection [that Allred contributed to Democratic candidates] can erase the factual testimony of witnesses. If Allred's client is credible, and the fact that she is one of multiple independent accusers suggests that she probably is, then Cain has to face up to the events and explain why they do not disqualify him for office requiring public trust.
The deflection toward Democrat supporters when Cain has already taken the public position that the leak came from the Perry [GOP] campaign is inconsistent and makes Cain look desperate. The so-called "advisor" [who is white, by the way] that called the current situation a "high tech lynching" certainly did Cain no favors. He should be fired immediately. While race is an issue in some aspects of Cain's candidacy, and he has made it so by denigrating Black folk as "brainwashed" because they don't support his candidacy, these allegations of sexual impropriety have little to do with race. They are no more racial than the allegations against Clinton, Spitzer or Wilbur Mills and a host of other male politicians of all colors and political stripes.
My grandfather used to remind me that: "when you step up to start a fight, don't forget that you have to bring your own nose along. And it might just get bloodied too!" Cain wants to be treated as a serious candidate. He had better wise up and learn that he is playing on a bigger stage than he has ever tried before. The stakes and the risks are all much higher. If he does not have the character, stomach, skills and staff to handle the challenge, he should sit down and shut up.
[Pawlenty and Palin have vanished to obscurity. The same should go for Bachman, but some people are not bright enough to realize when they have lost.]
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