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Doll
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Joined: 04 Jul 2005
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Location: The Beltway
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 Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 7:14 pm Post subject: Ted Kennedy's Last Stand: He'll Lead Senate Battle Over.... |
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This is outrageous!
Ted Kennedy's Last Stand: He'll Lead Senate Battle Over Court Pick
Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com
Tuesday, July 5, 2005
Analysis
| Quote: |
Sen. Edward Kennedy will be the Democrat's point man in their all out attack on President Bush's nominee to the high court.
Though Kennedy no longer holds the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a role he played from 1979 to 1981, he is the most senior ranking Democrat on the august committee. He is also the most virulent among his Democratic colleagues in his opposition to the Bush administration.
The stage has once again been set for him to become the salient force in the looming battle over who will replace a retiring Justice - Sandra Day O'Connor.
Kennedy, who has been in the Senate since 1962 is an old hand at the game and will no doubt outshine the titular head of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., at every turn.
People still talk about getting "Borked" when referring to getting a raw deal. But "Borked" should be synonymous with being targeted by Ted Kennedy.
When Robert H. Bork was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan, the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearings were singularly marked by Kennedy attacking Bork for his conservative judgments on issues like abortion and civil rights:
"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..."
Supreme Court nominee Bork was not confirmed.
Clarence Thomas got the treatment in 1991 as Bush, Sr.'s nominee to the high court.
With the confirmation hearings already revving hot and heavy over Thomas's conservative stance on issues like affirmative action, the brush fire morphed to a conflagration after a law professor named Anita Hill came forward during the hearings, claiming Thomas had sexually harassed her.
Kennedy was widely attacked as a hypocrite - his own personal life less than sterling - for taking a leading role as a defender of Anita Thomas against accused sexual harasser Clarence Thomas.
Perhaps the apparent hypocrisy backfired. Thomas was confirmed.
Already, Kennedy is sharpening up his rhetoric.
Kennedy's statement Friday: "If the President abuses his power and nominates someone who threatens to roll back the rights and freedoms of the American people, then the American people will insist that we oppose that nominee, and we intend to do so."
On "This Week," Kennedy barked, "If he wants to pick a judge, we want to be able to support him. But if he wants to have a fight about it, then that's going to be the case."
Meanwhile, chairman Specter was benignly warning conservative groups not to prejudge Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose name continues to be on the lips of those speculating about President Bush's choice of a Supreme Court nominee:
"I don't think the social conservatives ought to prejudge Attorney General Gonzales. Attorney General Gonzales may not even be in the picture," intoned Specter.
Kennedy, who rang in the Fourth of July with a starburst article called "Let the Senate Advise!" in the Washington Post, has his virtual office-style official Web site festooned with judiciary stuff. By contrast, there's not a byte on the Specter site remotely akin to the brewing firestorm.
Some weeks ago, the so-called "Gang of 14" Republican and Democratic senators struck a filibuster compromise deal to avoid the ominous "nuclear option" of freezing the filibuster with a rule change. The deal allowed votes for a handful of pro-life appeals court nominees that had been blocked by filibusters - in exchange for promises not to support changing Senate rules to prevent filibusters on judges.
As part and parcel of the compromise, members agreed that a filibuster would only be used on future judges, including Supreme Court nominees, in "extraordinary circumstances."
What the particular definition of "extraordinary" is remains subject to interpretation.
Enter Sen. Kennedy.
Pundits suggest that Kennedy's fire on the subject - even now in the days and weeks before a real live Bush nominee is even disclosed - is setting up an environment that can more readily be elevated to "extraordinary."
Indeed, Kennedy is the de facto head of a segment of the Senate that promises they will filibuster President Bush's pick to replace pro-abortion Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor - if the nominee is too conservative.
If just being too conservative doesn't ring of exigency, it can, with a little spin. "Can we imagine what this country would be like today if Judge Bork had gone onto the Supreme Court?" Kennedy asks rhetorically.
When Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., recently addressed the volatile subject of judges and omitted a demand for real down-and-dirty Senate-White House consultations, Kennedy took the lead in the chastisement department.
"Under the Constitution and the Senate Rules, every Senator's hands are on the oars of this vessel. If a substantial number of us are rowing in the opposite direction from the Majority Leader, we will not make much progress. But if there is a consensus as to where we want to go, we can get there directly and quickly.
"The 14 Senators who reached the landmark bipartisan compromise in the nuclear option debate made a pledge to one another and a plea to the President that the advice function must not be given short shrift, and that serious consultation with the Senate in the nomination process is the key to a successful confirmation process."
But all has not been fire and brimstone from Sen. Kennedy, who at one point seemed to be arguing simply for a little business as usual. "A few of us who have been here in the Senate for all of the confirmations of the current nine justices know that most of them were consensus choices.
"Seven of them - including all six whom the right-wing wants to impeach - were confirmed with such strong bipartisan support that no more than nine Senators voted against them, and, of those, four received unanimous Senate support."
Whatever hopes Sen. Kennedy entertains about consultation and consensus choices was flavored by remark made in yet another of the flurry of press releases flowing from the Kennedy camp. In this case he charges the opposition with girding their loins - knowing full well that the nominee is going to be a bombshell.
"White House officials made time to meet, with prominent outside allies on the right, who are so sure that the President will nominate a non-consensus candidate, that they have put an $18 million war-chest in place to defend that nominee. Their advice to the President was clear - they would consent to and support any right-wing judge he selects for the High Court. No wonder he likes to get their advice and consent!"
Kennedy has put his own colleagues on notice of just how seriously he takes the process. When a senator argued in print that "Senate practice and even the Constitution contemplate deference to the president and a presumption in favor of confirmation," the Massachusetts lawmaker shot out yet another press release.
"That's not what the Constitution says. Since the days of George Washington - whose nomination of a Justice was denied consent by the Senate of that day, there has been no 'presumption in favor of confirmation' of lifetime judicial appointees. In general, many of us do give some deference to a President's nominees to the Executive Branch, since they are not lifetime appointments. But even there, if the President overreaches, we act to fulfill our constitutional responsibility."
Giving a hint at the grisly nature of the potential conflict, Kennedy offered this colorful metaphor. "Like sausage and legislation, the confirmation or rejection of a Supreme Court nomination is not always something pleasant to watch or be part of. The course is set by the President. If the President submits an 'in your face' nomination to flaunt his power, it takes time and effort and sweat and tears before the truth about the candidate is fully discovered and explained to the public and voted on."
The 72-year-old senator has long ago abandoned any dreams of Camelot and has little to loose as he stands front and center. Other political stars, who still harbor presidential ambitions, such as Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., have been more or less content to wait it out - letting the other side at least fire the first shot with that feared 'in your face' nominee.
Far from being content with a waiting game, Kennedy looks forward to yet the next phase of battle - when Chief Justice William Rehnquist retires. Kennedy is on record saying that Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas "would be completely troublesome" as nominees to replace the ailing Rehnquist. |
Newsmax
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GM Strong
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
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| Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 7:59 pm Post subject: |
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Good Night Teddy.
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FireFox
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Joined: 11 Sep 2004
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| Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Good time for a hard-hitting documentary on Chappaquiddick. |
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coldwarvet
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| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 12:47 am Post subject: |
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| FireFox wrote: | | Good time for a hard-hitting documentary on Chappaquiddick. |
Perhaps a new blogger will make their mark like the Swift Vets did. Pass the hat buy some TV adds we know the process. Just think their is a whole couple of generations who know nothing about Chappaquidick.
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Doll
Commander
Joined: 04 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 2:31 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | - Chappaquiddick has been called "the most brilliant cover-up ever achieved in a nation where investigative procedures are well developed and where the principles of equal justice prevail, at least during some of those moments where people are watching." |
| Quote: | ~ The Last Kennedy by Robert Sherrill - The mysteries of the case continue to haunt Ted Kennedy as well as the authorities who investigated them. Charges of ineptitude and lack of diligence abounded, as did insinuations that the machinery of justice crumbled beneath the power and prestige of the Kennedy family. George Killen, former State Police Detective-Lieutenant, and chief of a never-revealed investigation, lamented that the failure to bring the case to a satisfactory conclusion was "the biggest mistake" of a long and distinguished police career. Senator Kennedy, he said, "killed that girl the same as if he put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger."
~ Senatorial Privilege by Leo Damore |
Regatta Weekend - July 1969
( excerpts from Senatorial Privilege by Leo Damore )
| Quote: | 
The Lawrence Cottage ~ Chappaquiddick
- Every summer, the Edgartown Yacht Club sponsored the Edgartown Regatta off Martha's Vineyard. The Kennedys had been attending the regatta for years, and their celebrations were the stuff of legend. Their 1966 regatta party had been "riotous," and 1967 equally festive, leaving a rented cottage in shambles. The assassination of Robert Kennedy had kept the family away in 1968, but in the spring of 1969 plans were under way to resume the festivities. |
| Quote: | | - Two Kennedy boats, the Resolute and the Victura, were entered in the 1969 races, and Ted Kennedy felt that the weekend's festivities provided the perfect situation to reunite the members of Bobby's campaign staff, affectionately known as the "Boiler Room Girls" because of the tough back room work they did. |
| Quote: | 
Joseph A. Gargan
- Joseph Gargan, Ted Kennedy's cousin and lawyer, agreed to make the arrangements. He reserved rooms for the women at the Katama Shores Inn near Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard. Teddy and the other men would be put up at the Shiretown Inn. Gargan also searched for a cottage on the water which would serve as the site for their cookout and party after the races.
- When he discovered that all suitable accommodations on the water in Edgartown had already been taken, Gargan settled on the Lawrence Cottage on the nearby island of Chappaquiddick. This cottage was near the beach, and allowed the party-goers to stay through Sunday. "That's the main reason I rented the place", Gargan said. |
| Quote: | | - The island, separated from Martha's Vineyard by a narrow channel, was accessible only a ferry which operated between the hours of 7:30 AM and midnight. Gargan's choice of Chappaquiddick as the site for the party would ultimately lead to disaster. |
| Quote: | - Beginning in 1940, a young Joey Gargan had been sent to spend summers in Hyannis Port with his cousin Ted Kennedy. An overweight, good natured 8-year-old, Teddy was delighted with his new playmate. Muscular and athletic, Joey Gargan could take care of himself and, it turned out, Teddy too.
- Used to doing chores, Gargan was handy with tools, something alien to his cousin who couldn't change a tire on a bicycle or use a screwdriver. So resourceful was his cousin, that Teddy came to rely on him, confident that whatever the problem, "Joey'll fix it." |
| Quote: | 
Mary Jo Kopechne
- This relationship would continue into their adult years, and was put to the ultimate test after the accident at Chappaquiddick. For nearly 20 years, Gargan suffered in silence from the wounds inflicted on him by the tragedy that killed Mary Jo Kopechne. |
| Quote: | | [ HOME ] [ INDEX ][ Chapter 1 ][ Chapter 2 ][ Chapter 3 ][ Chapter 4 ][ Chapter 5 ][ Chapter 6 ][ Epilogue ][ EXHIBITS ] |
It continues:
At the Party
Background
This should help one of you bloggers extroandinair to get a head start at CHAPPAQUIDDICK:
A Profile in Cowardice Ted Kennedy, the accident, and the cover-up
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PhantomSgt
Vice Admiral
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 972
Location: GUAM, USA
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| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 8:32 am Post subject: |
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I can only hope the Bush nominee gives Rotunda Kennedy such a hard time he lathers him up until he has a stroke. I really wish we had CSPAN in Guam.
Well maybe I can catch the footage of Rotunda clutching his chest on Fox.
Mary Jo would like that I'm sure.
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coldwarvet
Admiral
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| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 12:20 pm Post subject: |
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GM Strong
“Teddy Kennedy’s last stand” How prophetic?
Wow expendable Teddy is on a suicide mission. One look at the image of Teddy; I am no Doc but he has heart attack – stroke written all over him. The stress of this assignment will expedite the enviable.
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Ohio Voter
PO2
Joined: 09 Aug 2004
Posts: 360
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| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 12:40 pm Post subject: Re: Ted Kennedy's Last Stand: He'll Lead Senate Battle Over. |
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I fail to see how this would be his last stand. I WISH his voters would turn their back on him and replace him in the Senate. But they haven't in the past. Is there some demographics on his popularity that I don't know about?
| VApatriot wrote: | This is outrageous!
Ted Kennedy's Last Stand: He'll Lead Senate Battle Over Court Pick
Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com
Tuesday, July 5, 2005
Analysis
| Quote: |
Sen. Edward Kennedy will be the Democrat's point man in their all out attack on President Bush's nominee to the high court.
Though Kennedy no longer holds the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a role he played from 1979 to 1981, he is the most senior ranking Democrat on the august committee. He is also the most virulent among his Democratic colleagues in his opposition to the Bush administration.
The stage has once again been set for him to become the salient force in the looming battle over who will replace a retiring Justice - Sandra Day O'Connor.
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Deuce
Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined: 19 Mar 2005
Posts: 589
Location: FL
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| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 2:27 pm Post subject: |
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We could speculate that RINO Spectre promised Teddy that favor way back when he 'promised' Bush he'd provide fair Judiciary hearings....given the results he musta had his fingers crossed! The favor in all likelihood probably cost Teddy a bottle of Scotch (or does he drink Irish?).....
'Course it would only be speculation
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blue9t3
Admiral
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 1246
Location: oregon
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| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2005 3:44 pm Post subject: |
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Im not sure if he drinks Irish but he might choke trying to wash down a hotdog with a fifth of old # 7, either that or when he opens his big mouth he'll suck out all the air in the place and pass out! 
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Doll
Commander
Joined: 04 Jul 2005
Posts: 339
Location: The Beltway
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| Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 3:02 am Post subject: |
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| blue9t3 wrote: | | Im not sure if he drinks Irish but he might choke trying to wash down a hotdog with a fifth of old # 7, either that or when he opens his big mouth he'll suck out all the air in the place and pass out! |
 Do you really think we could get that lucky!!!!!
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