Do Your Jobs

It's time for our Senators on both sides of the aisle to step up and do their jobs, and to point out when they are being prevented from doing so.

I don't know what to think of Judge Roberts. I honestly don't. On the one hand, he seems really evasive under questioning, in the way that really skilled lawyers can be.

On the other hand, whether he admits it or not, there has to be at least a little politicking going on in his mind. After all, he's up for one of the most prestigious jobs in the nation. Arguably in some ways more so, although more quietly so, than the Presidency itself, because of the long lasting tenure. Judge Roberts has a very real chance, if confirmed, of affecting the direction of this country for three decades or more. As a result, in a very real sense, he's up for a mother of a job interview, and has to know that he's in a position where realistically, the job is his to lose. In that situation, I think I'd be as cagey as my skills would allow as well.

I'm trying to avoid falling into the trap of liking or disliking him because of his friends or his enemies, because my gut feeling is that those who are for or against him generally have no more information than the rest of us do, and are simply assuming things about his positions and his character because of who nominated him.

So I'll say right here, before I get to the meat of my point, that at this point I have nothing against Judge Roberts and have no reason to believe he either should or should not be confirmed.

But... back to Senators doing their jobs. The Senate should send Judge Roberts back to the White House without a vote. I believe that's as valid a response at the Supreme Court level as it is with lower court nominees. Don't have a vote and rate the Judge on his merits, and make very public the fact that you don't object to Judge Roberts on merit and won't object if he is re-nominated... only that you require access to ALL of the information that the White House has about him or any other nominee.

This is their job. This task is among the most important that the Congress undertakes, because in a very real sense they're asked to have some say in the nanny who will oversee their actions. It's very important to the country that they get this right, just as it is every time a Supreme Court nomination comes up.

And so they should send Roberts back without a vote and tell the White House that this isn't a kids game. The Administration doesn't get to call "It's my ball, my rules, if you don't like it, I'll take my ball and go home". This isn't their ball. It's the United States' ball, and the United States' rules. Among those rules is that Congress has a reasonable right to examine ALL of a Judge's history, not just the part that the White House doesn't consider objectionable.

Under similar situations, you could make Hitler look good. (Again, I'm not equating Judge Roberts with Hitler, merely making a point.) If you were able to selectively control which writings and actions in Hitler's history someone had access to, you could make him seem like a great man for a job. He accomplished a lot, he managed to get most of an entire country united under his leadership, etc, etc. There's just that pesky "Third Reich" thing with the holocaust and all of that attacking his neighboring nations and stuff... But if you wanted to get Hitler confirmed, by removing from consideration all information about the later parts of his life you could make him seem like not too bad of a choice.

So, I know it'll never happen. But our Senators should stop playing politics, just for one grand and glorious moment, and say "Hey, this is our job. This is our Constitutional responsibility and damn it, we take it seriously. If you can't take it equally seriously, then you can take your nominee and go home, and bring him back when you're willing to let us do the job that we are, for the good of the country, supposed to do."

Copyright (c) September 15, 2005 by Liam Johnson. http://www.liamjohnson.net