Thursday, July 21, 2005. <\/b>When we say the president names a nominee who then gets the appointment following the advice and consent of the Senate, we mean everyone from the Cabinet and a few top Executive Branch positions to all the federal judges.<\/p>\n
So far as those who work in the Executive Branch, we like to say that the president should pick his own team and the Senate grills these folks with that in mind. The Senate has by definition a harder edge when it, first by the Judiciary Committee, considers judges and justices. The members of the country’s judicial branch are independent of both Congress and the presidency.<\/p>\n
So when it comes to President Bush’s selection of John Roberts, who is fairly young and only two years an appeals court judge at that, I bet I won’t like him much, especially as we learn about his conservative judicial philosophy. Now is a very good time for me to say this, as ignorant as I am so far about John Roberts. I hope the Senate confirms him quickly and without much headbanging on anyone’s part.<\/p>\n
It’s Bush’s turn. He is going to name someone he believes in. When the Democrats manage to retake the office, they’ll get a chance, and opposing senators, not to mention lobbyists and grass-roots organizations, and commentators and video gasbags, will shout a lot then.<\/p>\n
Also, I do hope Roberts is a judicial activist. That is such a loaded term yet both naive and ambiguous. The judiciary is fully a third of our government. They have to perform their lifetime appointments as they see fit. That is by being activists in their fashion, and thus independent of Congress, the president, special interests, the press and even Brick layers as myself.<\/p>\n
If various judges do a tap dance on constitutional democracy, or if only a consistent majority of the Supreme Court worries a majority of us, then we vote in a new president who’ll gradually put in his sort of judicial activist. If it gets really bad, there’s always the impeachment process for individual judges and justices. Too bad, though, we save impeachment for the small stuff. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Thursday, July 21, 2005. When we say the president names a nominee who then gets the appointment following the advice and consent of the Senate, we mean everyone from the Cabinet and a few top Executive Branch positions to all the federal judges. So far as those who work in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-spin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5487,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2016\/11\/cloakroom-talk\/","url_meta":{"origin":129,"position":0},"title":"Cloakroom Talk","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Endorsing Conner Eldridge for U.S. Senate Let's leave the 2016 presidential race a moment. It'll continue without us. Let's consider Congress. From an Arkansas view. The Republican Party has had majorities in the House and Senate the last two years. The party has worked hard to oppose most of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Conner Eldridge","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Conner-Eldridge-240x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6265,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2019\/01\/2000-words\/","url_meta":{"origin":129,"position":1},"title":"2,000 Words","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Main photo NBC News,\u00a0inset photo Snopes.com \"A picture is worth a thousand words.\" This is my Facebook profile photo and cover photo for Sunday. Can't stomach it for more than that nor wish others to deal with it longer either. \"Revulsion\" is not an impeachable offense for Donald J. Trump,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photos of Trump about to welcome Clemson football team with silver, candles and prepackaged fast food, and a photo from Snopes of Roger Stone's Nixon tattoo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/facebook-page-012719.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/facebook-page-012719.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/facebook-page-012719.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/facebook-page-012719.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6453,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2020\/01\/thats-what-he-is\/","url_meta":{"origin":129,"position":2},"title":"That’s What He Is, All Right","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Official White House photos of President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence From Friday, Jan. 20, 2017, to Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019, neither spoken nor written have I ever used the phrase President Trump or any variation. That is I did not adjoin the word \"president\" and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Portraits-of-President-Donald-J.-Trump-and-Vice-President-Mike-Pence.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Portraits-of-President-Donald-J.-Trump-and-Vice-President-Mike-Pence.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Portraits-of-President-Donald-J.-Trump-and-Vice-President-Mike-Pence.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Portraits-of-President-Donald-J.-Trump-and-Vice-President-Mike-Pence.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Portraits-of-President-Donald-J.-Trump-and-Vice-President-Mike-Pence.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Portraits-of-President-Donald-J.-Trump-and-Vice-President-Mike-Pence.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1984,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/06\/run-down-for-runoff\/","url_meta":{"origin":129,"position":3},"title":"Run Down for Runoff","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"That's why we have the committee system.\" Let's nominate this as the quote of the spring 2010 primary campaign season. Dave Bisbee is executive of Benton County, Ark. He's seeking re-election. The field of candidates was narrowed in May, and the runoff for county judge is Tuesday the 8th. It's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":145,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/05\/bushy-eyebrows\/","url_meta":{"origin":129,"position":4},"title":"Bushy eyebrows","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 12, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Thursday, May 12, 2005: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the whole body should confirm the nomination of cranky John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Comedians and humorists need easy material. Not to mention cartoonists. -30-","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4462,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2013\/09\/with-luck-a-four-way\/","url_meta":{"origin":129,"position":5},"title":"With Luck, a Four-way","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"May I predict, with perverse pleasure, the coming split of both the Republican and Democratic parties. I am not referring to the politics as usual intra- and interparty squabbles. The GOP is as strong as ever, but it's not without the occasional flare. Mid-month and again this week it was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, read the Dr. Seuss children's book \"Green Eggs and Ham\" during his non-filibuster overnight address in the Capitol.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Dr_Seuss_Green_Eggs_and_Ham-215x300.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}