Putting to rest the "Ginsberg was Liberal - we voted for her anyway" Crap

The Ginsburg Fallacy

To hear some Republicans tell it, letting Ruth Bader Ginsburg onto the Supreme Court was a tough pill to swallow. She was an ACLU-loving, bra-burning feminazi, but they supported her anyway, dutifully respecting the president's right to put his own stamp on the high court. Therefore, Democrats now owe President Bush the same deference when weighing his choice of Samuel Alito.

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Strong argument -- if only it had happened that way. Either those peddling this conveniently muddled version of events don't remember it correctly or they are betting that others won't. Listeners beware: Those who don't remember history are condemned to be spun by it.

In fact, then-Judge Ginsburg was a consensus choice, pushed by Republicans and accepted by the president in large part because he didn't want to take on a big fight. Far from being a crazed radical, Ginsburg had staked out a centrist role on a closely divided appeals court. Don't take it from me -- take it from Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). In his autobiography, the Utah Republican describes how he suggested Ginsburg -- along with Clinton's second pick, Stephen G. Breyer -- to the president. "From my perspective, they were far better than the other likely candidates from a liberal Democratic administration," Hatch writes.

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By contrast, University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein found that Alito, in the overwhelming majority of cases in which he dissented, took a more conservative stance than his colleagues. In short, if this were an SAT analogy, Ginsburg would not be to liberal as Alito is to conservative. Nor could her tenure on the high court be called "Ginsburg Gone Wild."

The rest is here - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/14/AR2005111401021.html

her this week in the Senate record. He said he mentioned both of those people to Clinton, who he claims had never heard of either one of them (making Clinton sound like a real rube in the process). He made it sound like he put one over on Clinton by suggesting them. They can't very well vote against someone that they recommeded in the first place without looking like assholes, can they?

Hatch is a snake. A varmit. Slug slime without the glitter.

Opponents of Alito (like us) have done a very poor job of getting that message out. lush and insannity are out there everyday running the, "The pukes supported the ultra-liberal Ginsberg" message and our side is doing a lousy job of responding.
I'm not a Hatch fan, but he is right on this issue, "He did recommend Ginsberg." That old advise and consent thing. We need to point out that while we consulted and listened to them, they do not respond in kind, that scrub did NOT ask our party about scalito.

We have done a crappy job of countering the spin, and we have not pointed out the consulted and listened thing, well at least not enough. Someone mentioned it on the floor last week, but I can't even remember who.