• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Petty moves from a petty man.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

One way or another, he’s a liar.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Consistently wrong since 2002

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

The words do not have to be perfect.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Alito And Abortion

Alito And Abortion

by John Cole|  November 18, 200511:56 am| 6 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, Politics

FacebookTweetEmail

It sounds like it is a long way off, but the January confirmation hearings are actually right around the corner. We started a discussion on Alito by the issues here, and will probably pick up on that over the holidays and closer to the New Year, but for now, a quick update. Michael Kinsley in the WaPo brings us this:

The major question for Snowe and other liberal senators actually is not respect for judicial precedents. The major question is abortion. They want to know whether Alito would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade . But by the absurd unwritten rules of these increasingly stylized episodes, they are not allowed to ask him and he is not allowed to answer. So the nominee does a fan dance, tantalizing the audience by revealing little bits of his thinking, but denying us a complete view. And senators pretend, maybe even to themselves, that they really care about precedents and privacy in the abstract.

The artifice can get quite elaborate. Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, makes a half-serious distinction among precedents, super-precedents and super-duper precedents. Others emphasize that social policies can start with a Supreme Court ruling and develop into deeply rooted national values. That happened with Roe and abortion, they would say, while the opposite happened with Bowers and laws against homosexuality. Of course, if a policy really has become a deeply rooted national value, then the once-controversial Supreme Court ruling is superfluous, because democracy will protect such a value. The fear that motivates the Roe panic is that the rights at stake are not deeply rooted. Or not deeply enough.

While Roe defenders play this double game, ostensible Roe opponents, especially those in the White House, may be playing a triple game. Their public position is (a) Roe is a terrible decision, responsible for a vast slaughter of innocents; (b) legal abortion is deeply immoral; and (c) we ignore all this in choosing Supreme Court justices and you ( Roe defenders) should, too.

It doesn’t make sense, and it’s not believable. The natural assumption is that President Bush is trying to con abortion-rights supporters. Only an idiot would squander the opportunity to rid the nation of Roe because of some fatuous nonsense about picking judges without finding out the one thing you most urgently want to know. But Machiavellians of my acquaintance believe that it is the antiabortion folks who are getting conned. The last thing in the world that Republican strategists want is repeal of Roe . If abortion becomes a legislative issue again, all those pro-choice women and men who have been voting Republican because abortion rights were secure would have to reconsider, and many would bolt.

Meanwhile, the reversal of Roe would energize the left the way Roe itself energized the right. Who needs that?

I still don’t understand why the LA Times got rid of Kinsley, who although annoying at times, adds value to any newspaper or magazine he is associated with.

Next on the Alito/Abortion plate, a ramp-up in advertising:

The battle over Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. moved to the nation’s airwaves yesterday, as conservative and liberal groups bought advertising time that could dwarf the meager efforts made in this year’s other two confirmation efforts.

As Alito continued his round of courtesy calls on senators, his critics launched new television ads painting him as a tool of right-wing conservatives. Supporters, meanwhile, announced ads that say his opponents, not Alito, are outside the political mainstream.

The ad buys, as well as the early clashes between the interest groups, are another signal that Alito’s confirmation will be more contentious and hard-fought than was that of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who was confirmed in September to replace the late William H. Rehnquist.

Ugh.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Radley Balko Gets It
Next Post: Hunh? »

Reader Interactions

6Comments

  1. 1.

    Sojourner

    November 18, 2005 at 12:56 pm

    Although I do like Kinsley, he is grossly underestimating the concerns by assuming that it’s only about abortion. The bottom line is that one’s position on the issue of privacy has a great deal to do with one’s position on gay rights, Patriot Act provisions, control over one’s personal information, and a host of other issues.

    Kinsley should know better than that.

  2. 2.

    Steve S

    November 18, 2005 at 1:17 pm

    It’s not just about abortion. IT’s about things like the FMLA and so on.

    I’m eagerly awaiting the hearings, but I’m becoming increasingly concerned the more I read that Alito is an activist judge.

  3. 3.

    Lines

    November 18, 2005 at 1:47 pm

    I agree that he’s an activist, I’d never vote for him to be approved, if left up to me. However, his past is not raising nearly the amount of alarm that makes me believe that anyone is going to raise enough of a fuss about him. I’m finding it quite difficult to believe that he’ll have a chance to enact any of his activist beliefs, given the track record of the current court. But with two virtual “unknowns” in the court, it could prove an interesting few years.

  4. 4.

    tzs

    November 18, 2005 at 4:04 pm

    “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”–Santayama

    “Stupidity should HURT.”–me

    Pass the popcorn.

  5. 5.

    jobiuspublius

    November 18, 2005 at 6:52 pm

    Hey, it’s a pro-life christmas this year, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Let the baby jebuses live you whores!!

  6. 6.

    george

    March 2, 2009 at 2:52 pm

    is there a secret character being added?

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Image by GB in the HC (5/23)

Recent Comments

  • Ruckus on Why Raw Story (and other outlets) Make Me Crazy (May 24, 2025 @ 2:50am)
  • Ruckus on Why Raw Story (and other outlets) Make Me Crazy (May 24, 2025 @ 2:43am)
  • prostratedragon on Open Thread: TFG’s Memecoin Dinner Grift Grab (May 24, 2025 @ 2:29am)
  • Quaker in a Basement on Open Thread: TFG’s Memecoin Dinner Grift Grab (May 24, 2025 @ 2:15am)
  • Westyny on War for Ukraine Day 1,184: Stage 1 of the Thousand for a Thousand Exchange (May 24, 2025 @ 1:48am)

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
War in Ukraine
Donate to Razom for Ukraine

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Meetups

Upcoming Ohio Meetup May 17
5/11 Post about the May 17 Ohio Meetup

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Hands Off! – Denver, San Diego & Austin

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!