I've
written before about my disgust with Dianne Feinstein. She consistently comes swinging at San Francisco and California from the right, and when the chips are down, she always comes down on the side of rich folks.
I suppose I could understand some of that if I thought it was based on a misguided notion that the Democrats needed to convince some reactionary middle that they are the force of the status quo.
Her
latest move, however, just seems stupid, intellectually and politically.
A member of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday that Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito had distanced himself from a memo he wrote 20 years ago that said "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the only female member of the committee that will vote on the nomination, said she asked the appeals court judge about the memo.
"What [Alito] said was, 'It was different then. I was an advocate seeking a job. It was a political job,'" the California Democrat said.
Is the job of Supreme Court Justice not a political job? This is asinine on so many levels that it's hard for me to handle, but let's look at a couple:
- Alito is essentially saying, "I told them what they wanted to hear." Does it not occur to Feinstein that since he's admitting that he lied--or at least shaded his answers--to get that job, he's probably lying again to get this job?
- Bush has nominated a guy that clearly has views on abortion not shared by a majority of Americans. He is on record as saying that abortion is not a right. Why is Feinstein giving him a pass on this? How is this possibly good for the Democratic Party, women, or the country?
- This is a guy whose position on Roe (that abortion is not a right) is in many ways his least extreme position. He's in favor of women having to get permission from their husbands to have an abortion. He's in favor of strip searching 10-year-old girls! Why would you sit there and make him out to be a reasonable choice for the Supreme Court?
Feinstein has done some bad things in the past, but this is some stupid, stupid stuff.