Bill Moyers Journal is a weekly eye-opener, and this past week's episode is no exception. Well, maybe it is: It's exceptionally eye-opening.
It turns out that the Supreme Court Justice who wrote the majority opinion of the despicable Citizens United v. FEC decision last month, is the very same Supreme Court Justice who said this on-camera to Bill Moyers:
There must be a recommitment, a rededication to the Constitution in every generation. And every generation faces a different challenge. We weren't talking about this 30 years ago because we didn't have money in elections. Money in elections presents us with a tremendous challenge, a tremendous problem, and we are remiss if we don't at once address it and correct it.
How can that be?
He wants to "address and correct" the corrupting influence of money in politics? By giving huge corporations unfettered access? Is he trying to smother a fire by pouring on more gasoline?
The difference is time. When Justice Anthony Kennedy lamented to Bill Moyers the corrupting power of money in judicial elections, that was back in November of 1999. Come 2010, he not only has no problem with it, but it was his very own pivotal vote in this despicable 5-4 decision that opened the floodgates of corrupting money in politics. I don't know what happened during those 11 years, but it's undoubtedly a turn for the worse.
Seeing is believing. You can watch the entire episode here, and the transcript is available in three parts: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
Now you know why PBS is so very important.