Ralph Nader: The Two Questions the Senate Should Have Asked Judge Alito

[Karmadillo]

http://www.counterpunch.com/nader01132006.html

As a long time observer of how Supreme Court nominees evade questions, I think the Judiciary Committee could have saved a lot of time by simply asking Judge Samuel Alito the following two questions:

1. Judge Alito, would you tell the Committee what is the criteria you are adopting to determine when you will choose not to answer certain questions put to you either orally or in written form?

2. Sitting Supreme Court Justices often have made public speeches, written articles, taught law school classes and, in the case of Justices Scalia and Breyer, have even debated publicly at the law school of American University. Justices have expressed opinions and made comments about a variety of controversial legal issues. In so doing, they have not concluded that these public expressions, sometimes followed by questions from the audience, compelled them either to recuse themselves in cases before them or to consider themselves prejudging these matters pending or likely to come to the Court in the future.

What is your opinion of these speaking, writing and teaching practices in this context?

more...

[bowens43]

1. The one question to ask Ralph Nader

1. What the FUCK were you thinking?

[Tesla]

2. He wouldn't answer these either!

[rlpincus]

3. A question for you Mr.Nader

Since by all accounts your third party run in 2000 gave us the Bush administration, Judge Alito has been given this opportunity to join the Supreme Court as a direct outgrowth of your actions. Happy?

[Matariki]

11. Nader didn't cause Bush to win in 2000

because Bush actually lost. It isn't Nader's fault that we have Bush in the whitehouse.

[KG]

26. and maybe my memory is faulty, but wasn't there another pres.

election since 2000? that's the relevant election, so what's the dems excuse for losing that one?

[11 Bravo]

29. By gosh, you're right!

As I recall, that election came after the Repugs were handed 4 years in which to consolidate the election-theft machinations which paid off so handsomely for them in Ohio in '04.

[KG]

31. ok, i see. why blame the dem. for losing elections when there are so many

convenient excuses laying about? :eyes:

it's no mystery to me why dem. party is totally out of power.

[11 Bravo]

34. Oh, there's plenty of blame to go around.

It's simply amusing to witness the degree to which Naderites will go to avoid accepting ANY of it.

[leftstreet]

12. But by your reasoning, Ross Perot gave us Ginsberg and Breyer.

:shrug:

[montana500]

46. " Gore and Bush are the exact same"

- the lie perpetuated by Nader that screwed Al Gore in Florida.

[newportdadde]

4. Note to Ralph - Your one of the big reasons we are in this situation.

Asshole.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

21. dems voted for thomas and scalia

and roberts-and now they're going to vote for alito

if anything, ralph was right about the party being a joke

[Proud2BAmurkin]

37. So Gore would have nominated Scalito? This is fuckface Nader's legacy

nt

[malaise]

5. Two great questions n/t

[TlalocW]

6. Questions for Ralph to ask himself

Why am I pretending I'm still relevant?

Shouldn't I be under a rock somewhere punishing myself for helping to fuck up the 2000 elections and getting us to the point we are now with Alito hearings going on?

TlalocW

[makeanoise22]

7. c'mon ease up on Nader

The Democrats should have listened to him, but they didn't, so he ran to talk about the issues, no one else would...It's old hat to blame him for the COUP instigated by the Bush Regime and the Supreme Court....let's ask our Democrat Senators why they don't ask questions like that....

[meegbear]

16. While I don't care for the man, they are valid questions ...

and :party: WELCOME TO DU!!! :party:

[makeanoise22]

17. Thanks, I 'm anti-Bush all the way

and I dont' blame NADER at all, I blame
the damn House of Representatives
the Senate,
the Supreme Court and
the Mainstream media...

good to be here!

[LittleClarkie]

8. Don't trouble yourself Ralph. Don't you remember

there's not a dime's worth a different. Kerry's picks would have looked JUST the same.

[MoJoWorkin]

38. President Gore would have had the same SC picks,as Bush. Right, Ralphy?

:sarcasm:

NADER MUST accept some blame---I can't stand that little egomaniac.
If Nader hadn't run in 2000, Gore would have been the Pres today( FLA wouldn't have been close enough to have been stolen, Gore wouldn't have had to keep going back to states that were "safe" without Nader in the picture, etc.) , and we wouldn't have had the Iraq War, nor these two horrendous SC choices, nor so many of the other nightmares we have to face.

YES I DO BLAME HIM, and I will FOREVER blame him, along with all week-kneed Dems who would not(when they all abandoned Gore except for the Black Caucus), nor still will not, stand and be counted. Gore has proved time and time again that he is SO VERY different from W, and anyone who fell for that Nader line still makes me fume.


:grr: :nuke: :grr:

[LittleClarkie]

45. I don't have a problem with him running. That's democracy for ya.

But that doesn't stop me from thinking he's a little prick who has lost any credibility he ever had. A shame too. I used to look up to him. But that was before he took smear vet money.

I feel about him the way I feel about Pat Buchannan. Both talk pretty sometimes, but both have blood on their hands as neither saw a difference between Bush and Kerry. Pat can no longer cry about the Iraq war. He voted for Bush to get the conservative SCOTUS nominees. I hope he chokes on them.

[DefenseLawyer]

9. Gee Ralph

aren't you too busy writing thank-you cards to all the Republican donors to your last campaign to bother with this? Don't you still say that there is NO DIFFERENCE between Democrats and Republicans? Ralph, your great concern for the makeup of the Supreme Court is touching. Really. Inspiring even.

[WinkyDink]

10. Question to Nader: Why don't you STHU??!

Why don't you review your comment that Gore and Bush were "Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumber"?
Thought you were so CLEVER, huh?
STHU!!!!!

[makeanoise22]

14. You guys sound like right wingers here!

They are so scared of Bill Clinton, they just can't get past him...
So Ralph Nader must have the same effect here?

C'mon people, those are great questions Nader brought up and if the DEMOCRATS would have made the vote counters stay and count over thanksgiving, it would be President Al Gore....


How quick we forget...
let it go

[meganmonkey]

13. Okay, let's attack the messenger

instead of discussing the message. :sarcasm:

Although it appears that many folks have a reading disability where they can't get past the word 'Nader'.

:boring:

(on edit: I will be offline for most of the day so flame away but don't expect a response ;) )

[makeanoise22]

15. Amen to that one!

too much work to be done....those are good questions to be asked, would like to here what people have to say about the QUESTIONS!

[G_j]

33. not only that

but continue to willingly offer cover for the Republican criminals who have stolen the elections and turned back the clock on African American voting rights.

[ronnykmarshall]

18. Not a question to Ralph but a comment:

[makeanoise22]

19. I think he's a diabetic! LOL

nice!

[11 Bravo]

20. Nader is right on target.

That's once this decade, I guess we should now let him slide for giving us Bush in 2000 and the attendant shitstorm that accompanied his belief that there's not a dimes worth of diference between Dems and Repugs.

[pberq]

23. Another one that believes the myth that Ralph gave us Bush

Whoever startd that line of propaganda has scored one of the biggest coups in the last decade.

The Democratic Party, hijacked by the DLC had become Republican Lite by 2000, and somebody had to stand up and take a stand for the majority of Americans who are not represented by either the R's or the DLC.

In any case, it was the Supreme Court that gave Bush the White House, not Nader.

[11 Bravo]

27. Yep. those thousands of Nader votes in FLA were a myth, all right

Believe what you want, Buck-o; but numbers, unlike opinions, are fairly inflexible. If you truly believe that the thousands of Ralph "there's not a dimes bit of difference between the candidates" Nader voters came out of the Bush column, then you're beyond help. And the never-ending "DLC" mantra is by now as lame as a Limbaugh anti-drug riff. The farthest right faction of the DLC couldn't have cooked up a worse scenario than a Bush presidency under any circumstances. And they didn't have to. An egotist with a Messiah complex (and a host of apologists) took care of business.

[High Plains]

30. How about all the Democrats who voted for Bush?

[11 Bravo]

32. What about them?

I personally think they're fucked in the head. Hell, I think the REPUBLICANS who voted for Bush are fucked up. But neither of those constituencies voted for an allegedly progressive candidate who ran knowing full well that he would draw votes away from only candidate - Al Gore. The net result is what we're living with today, but even more tragically, its what my kids will be living with courtesy of the Bush Court. Of course, its no big deal. Since "there's not a dimes worth of difference between the two parties", Gore or Kerry probably would have nominated Scalito anyhow.

[G_j]

35. and somebody personally held a gun to their heads

and made them vote for Nader.

In case you forgot, people vote of their own free will.
But thanks for offering cover to the people who criminally prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote by the thousands.

[11 Bravo]

39. I'll say it one more time.

There is plenty of blame to be shared. Most of it needs be assigned to the criminals who disenfranchised scores of African-Americans in South Florida. A portion lies at the feet of the misguided Dems who actually pulled the lever for Bush. But the contortions in which Naderites will twist themselves in order to avoid ANY of the blame are knee-slappingly funny (or, at least they would be if the consequences of their folly weren't so dire).

[Bridget Burke]

40. I won't say that NADER is solely responsible for 2000 ...

But he certainly helped.

[11 Bravo]

42. You know it and I know it, but ...

if you can find a Naderite to admit it, pleae, let me know. That would deserve to be posted in LBN.

[G_j]

47. in a healthy democracy

people would welcome more than two choices.

Maybe we should round up all those idiots and flog them.

IMO, it is good that some fortunate people were able to exercise their legal right to vote. Nader exercised his Constitutional right to run.
That is what Democracy should look like.
If people don't like it, then they may have a problem with "choice".

However, there was extensive and egregious criminal activity that took place.

On the one hand you have Democracy and on the other, criminality and tyrany.

---
but OK let's take all those who voted for Nader make them walk around with ashes on their heads and brand them with a scarlet "N".

[DefenseLawyer]

28. Sorry

I would be able to give Ralph a pass for 2000 if not for his despicable and inexplicable 2004 campaign, funded largely, openly, and quite happily I might add, by Republican money. I agree that the Brazile/Shrum braintrust completely failed address the progressive base and that Nader's role could have been justified. But I can't ignore 2004. He showed himself to be something other than an honest, progressive in 2004. He showed himself to be a self promoter, shilling for a buck.

[ZombieGak]

41. it was the EC who gave us Bush

The USSC only stopped the Florida recount allowing the anti-democratic EC vote weighting formula to kick in.

[Bonobo]

44. Ding Ding Ding! A winner!

God forbid people should have the choice to vote their conscience and based upon principles.

[Catchawave]

22. Love ya Ralphie, but....

about 3 months too late for moi.

Carry on.....:silly:

[ProfessorGAC]

24. Gotta Say! Those Are Good Questions!

I'm not Ralph's biggest fan, but i've got to give credit where's it due.
The Professor

[pilgrimm]

25. It's unfortunate that more questions like this weren't asked

[Proud2BAmurkin]

36. He wouldn't be NOMINATED if it weren't for you FUCKFACE NADER

NT

[spanone]

43. Fuck Ralph Nader. Why didn't he speak out before the hearings.

[Dr Fate]

48. Have no love for "St. Nader," but I suggested the exact same questions.

I sent them to Kennedy- I think they are pretty good questions.