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kpete

(71,986 posts)
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 11:03 AM Mar 2016

Quite remarkable column by George Will (i know, i know)

Do Republicans really think Donald Trump will make a good Supreme Court choice?


............

Republicans who vow to deny Garland a hearing and who pledge to support Donald Trump if he is their party’s nominee are saying: Democracy somehow requires that this vacancy on a non-majoritarian institution must be filled only after voters have had their say through the election of the next president. And constitutional values will be served if the vacancy is filled not by Garland but by someone chosen by President Trump, a stupendously uninformed dilettante who thinks judges “sign” what he refers to as “bills.” There is every reason to think that Trump understands none of the issues pertinent to the Supreme Court’s role in the American regime, and there is no reason to doubt that he would bring to the selection of justices what he brings to all matters — arrogance leavened by frivolousness.

Trump’s multiplying Republican apologists do not deny the self-evident — that he is as clueless regarding everything as he is about the nuclear triad. These invertebrate Republicans assume that as president he would surround himself with people unlike himself — wise and temperate advisers. So, we should wager everything on the hope that the man who says his “number one” foreign policy adviser is “myself” (because “I have a very good brain”) will succumb to humility and rely on people who actually know things. If Republicans really think that either their front-runner or the Democrats’ would nominate someone superior to Garland, it would be amusing to hear them try to explain why they do.



.........
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gop-wont-give-the-nominee-a-hearing-explained/2016/03/18/25df8ab2-ec8a-11e5-a6f3-21ccdbc5f74e_story.html
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Quite remarkable column by George Will (i know, i know) (Original Post) kpete Mar 2016 OP
'Ole George still has a way with a phrase: "arrogance leavened by frivolousness"...nicely turned. Surya Gayatri Mar 2016 #1
George Will is a gutless un-American twerp. tabasco Mar 2016 #2
From time to time, George pretends he's not a rightwing wacko struggle4progress Mar 2016 #3
I actually shared this on Facebook awoke_in_2003 Mar 2016 #7
And when did Will stand up and call out Trump for sending "his people" to Hawaii ... Botany Mar 2016 #4
I don't know about that particular instance, but Will was consistently critical of Trump Major Nikon Mar 2016 #9
Will has a long history of being a GOP tool Botany Mar 2016 #20
He's a typical GOP pile of shit Major Nikon Mar 2016 #21
+1.000 n/t malaise Mar 2016 #14
Memo to George Will: Boo Fucking Hoo. Paladin Mar 2016 #5
Republican elites terrified of Trump not for racism as they say. ErikJ Mar 2016 #6
Yes to "rampant corporate cronyism", especially the egregious trade deals CEO purchased. /nt NCjack Mar 2016 #11
It pains me to give him credit for anything, sus453 Mar 2016 #8
I very much disagree with George Will on everything, but AllyCat Mar 2016 #10
I think he sounds like a pompous ass Skittles Mar 2016 #22
"These invertebrate Republicans ..." bdwker Mar 2016 #12
He can turn a word, but he's still full of shit. JustABozoOnThisBus Mar 2016 #13
something along these lines? Gabi Hayes Mar 2016 #15
any brains of his kpete Mar 2016 #16
same here. a LONG time ago I was at a college lunch, with Will as the guest speaker. Gabi Hayes Mar 2016 #17
Please stop helping the Republicans malletgirl02 Mar 2016 #18
Righties are now ssying the want Trump to promise his vp, court, cabinet nominees Liberal_in_LA Mar 2016 #19
 

Surya Gayatri

(15,445 posts)
1. 'Ole George still has a way with a phrase: "arrogance leavened by frivolousness"...nicely turned.
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 11:23 AM
Mar 2016

(His repulsive politics notwithstanding.)

 

tabasco

(22,974 posts)
2. George Will is a gutless un-American twerp.
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 11:25 AM
Mar 2016

I'm so happy to see the rottenness of the republican party and "conservatism" implode upon itself.

struggle4progress

(118,282 posts)
3. From time to time, George pretends he's not a rightwing wacko
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 11:56 AM
Mar 2016

It's part of his long campaign to foster perceptions that he's a thoughtful and principled centrist

But it usually doesn't last very long

 

awoke_in_2003

(34,582 posts)
7. I actually shared this on Facebook
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 01:59 PM
Mar 2016

just to tweak a couple of republican friends. I shared a George Will post- it may snow in DFW tonight.

Botany

(70,501 posts)
4. And when did Will stand up and call out Trump for sending "his people" to Hawaii ...
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 01:47 PM
Mar 2016

... to investigate President Obama's place of birth?

Too late George just like the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, and the
Gulf of Mexico BP oil spill republican policies have their prices that will need to
be paid.

Major Nikon

(36,827 posts)
9. I don't know about that particular instance, but Will was consistently critical of Trump
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 02:01 PM
Mar 2016

He called out Rmoney for associating with Trump during the last election, specifically because of his birther dumbfuckery.

Botany

(70,501 posts)
20. Will has a long history of being a GOP tool
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 07:14 PM
Mar 2016

<During the 1980 campaign, he [George Will] drew fire when it was learned he'd secretly coached Republican candidate Ronald Reagan for a debate with President Jimmy Carter using a debate briefing book stolen from the Carter campaign. Immediately following the debate, Will appeared on Nightline (10/28/80) to praise Reagan's "thoroughbred performance," never disclosing his role in rehearsing that performance (New York Times, 7/9/83).>

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/12/3/277267/-

And after the debate Will wroe a piece in Time Mag. about how well Reagan had done in the debate.



Major Nikon

(36,827 posts)
21. He's a typical GOP pile of shit
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 08:44 PM
Mar 2016

But at least in this instance it was just worth pointing out that he's consistently been anti-Trump for many years.

Paladin

(28,254 posts)
5. Memo to George Will: Boo Fucking Hoo.
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 01:56 PM
Mar 2016

Enjoy the monster you and your movement helped to create and then inflict upon us all.

 

ErikJ

(6,335 posts)
6. Republican elites terrified of Trump not for racism as they say.
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 01:57 PM
Mar 2016

Theyre terrified that he is exposing the truth about their rampant corporate cronyism and truth about the Iraq war.

sus453

(164 posts)
8. It pains me to give him credit for anything,
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 02:01 PM
Mar 2016

but this time he's right (though perhaps like the clock twice a day).

AllyCat

(16,183 posts)
10. I very much disagree with George Will on everything, but
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 02:03 PM
Mar 2016

He is so correct about this issue. He has a solid grasp of language, intelligence, and writing skills to pen a scathing analysis of the dangerous farce Senate Republicans are making of a serious situation in our democracy.

JustABozoOnThisBus

(23,339 posts)
13. He can turn a word, but he's still full of shit.
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 04:43 PM
Mar 2016

He's calling Trump an idiot. So far, so good.

But he's using Trump's idiocy as a reason to give Garland a hearing. He's not pushing a Garland hearing because it is the Senate's job to hold a hearing.

If the Repug frontrunner were someone else, like Cruz, I assume Will would want the hearing delayed.

He's an ass.

 

Gabi Hayes

(28,795 posts)
15. something along these lines?
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 05:03 PM
Mar 2016
When Republican senators filibustered President Clinton’s economic stimulus bill in 1993, columnist George Will vigorously defended the Senate rule that requires the votes of at least 60 senators, a so-called supermajority, to impose an end to debate. In a column headlined “The Framers’ Intent” (Washington Post, 4/25/93), Will praised “the right of a minority to use extended debate to obstruct Senate action” and he cheered “the generation that wrote and ratified the Constitution” for properly establishing “the Senate’s permissive tradition regarding extended debates.”

Dismissing a liberal critic of the rule, Will wrote: “The Senate is not obligated to jettison one of its defining characteristics, permissiveness regarding extended debate, in order to pander to the perception that the presidency is the sun around which all else in American government–even American life–orbits.”

Ten years and an apparent Copernican Revolution later, Will reversed himself. In the column “Coup Against the Constitution” (Washington Post, 2/28/03), Will found the Senate rule he’d once draped in the mantle of original intent was in fact an affront to the framers.

Concerned that “41 Senate Democrats” might succeed in stopping the confirmation of Miguel Estrada, nominated by George W. Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals, Will wrote: “If Senate rules, exploited by an anti-constitutional minority, are allowed to trump the Constitution’s text and two centuries of practice, the Senate’s power to consent to judicial nominations will have become a Senate right to require a supermajority vote for confirmation.”


cheated on his wife, too:

....in the 1980s, while still married to his first wife, Will was romantically linked to Lally Weymouth, daughter of Washington Post owner Katharine Graham, according to Washingtonian magazine (1/87).

When Will moved out on his wife and children, he found his office furniture dumped on his front lawn with a note reading, “Take it somewhere else, buster” (Salon, 2/12/98).


http://fair.org/extra/the-hypocrisy-of-george-will/

and, yes, Tina Weymouth was the bass player for Talking Heads
 

Gabi Hayes

(28,795 posts)
17. same here. a LONG time ago I was at a college lunch, with Will as the guest speaker.
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 05:24 PM
Mar 2016

During his speech he said that groups like Common Cause should not be allowed to lobby, but that people like the K-streeters should have whatever access for which they were willing to pay.

During the QandA I axed him what sort of logic he used to come to such a strange conclusion, and he refused to answer, at which point I kept repeating the question, and I was asked to sit down or leave, so I shot him.

malletgirl02

(1,523 posts)
18. Please stop helping the Republicans
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 05:36 PM
Mar 2016

Please stop helping the Republicans absolve themselves of Trump. They made him with their "Southern Strategy". The Democratic Party needs to hang Trump around the Republicans neck.

As for George Will, he may be a good writer, but he is a piece of work. I refuse to rec this OP, because I feel it is helping the Republic Party absolve themselves of Trump.

 

Liberal_in_LA

(44,397 posts)
19. Righties are now ssying the want Trump to promise his vp, court, cabinet nominees
Sat Mar 19, 2016, 05:40 PM
Mar 2016

Will be certain folks.. they have a list of hard core righties the want him to promise to select from

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