You just have to love an opinion piece disguised as a "news story." Start with this headline: "Bush’s Judges Already Making Their Mark." I assumed (incorrectly, it turns out), that the article would be about, oh, I don’t know, some of the decisions that the Bush appointee’s have made. Silly me. I even thought this from the first paragraph:
No need to wait until
President Bush appoints a Supreme Court justice to see how he will make his mark on the federal judiciary. One level down, dozens of conservative appeals court judges appointed by Bush already are helping to shape the law in ways that ultimately could have as much, and in some ways even more, impact than the nine justices of the nation’s highest court.
It was at this point that I realized that this was an opinion piece, devoid of any facts to back it up. It is a subtle piece that is designed to tell the readers (of which there may be quite a few, as this was on Yahoo’s main page, in that little "News" box) that
- Bush’s appointee’s are raging Conservative activists who are legistating from the bench, and
- the SCOTUS nominations are super important for the Liberals because Bush’s lower court judges are running wild.
Of course, there is no evidence of this, just, as usual liberal media conjecture
Since Bush’s appellate judges have only gradually taken their seats on
benches around the country, and the cases that they draw run the gamut,
it’s still early to chart their impact on specific issues. But already
it is clear that these judges make up a solidly conservative crowd that
tends to lean Bush’s way on the big issues of the day.
Of course they make up a conservative crowd. Wasn’t Al Gore or John Kerry appointing them, you twit. Here is her kicker:
People for the American Way, a liberal advocacy group, titled its 2004
study of Bush’s judicial appointees "Confirmed Judges, Confirmed
Fears." It concluded that Bush appointees already have moved to limit
significantly congressional authority and protection of individual
rights.
Message: we need to stop Bush NOW, before he and his judges take all your judicially mandated rights, like gay marriage, abortion on demand, and criminals recieving therapy, away from you. Gotta make sure that those judges do not allow religion, at least the Christian kind, into, well, anything. And that they do not stick to the Constitution and the Law, otherwise, how can the Progressives (did you know that the Progressive Party was communist back in the 40’s and 50’s?) get their agenda through, other then the courts?
Very good slicing and dicing there, William. I note also that they specifically mention 3 liberal organizations by name and only one conservative group.
But then we conservatives are all members of the VRWC, so we don’t need those little offshoot groups like the leftists.
I can’t believe they actually admitted the Dummies for the (un)American Way are actually a liberal group — they must be slipping. Usually they “report” things like “The non-partisan People for the Am.Way” and then “The rabidly Republican ultra-conservative group…”
I started reading it, and it just seemed a bit off. I wonder if this type of subtlty will be more normal for the lefties.