It took five or six days, but finally the newspaper of record in what is arguably the most liberal large city in the United States took note in an EDITORIAL that a member of the highest court in the land has publically said that the country is teetering on the edge of "dictatorship."
SANDRA DAY O'Connor's remarks on the dangers of dictatorship in this country got little attention last week. Maybe that's expected when a retired U.S. Supreme Court justice speaks to a roomful of corporate lawyers...
Last Thursday, she really got going. In a Washington, D.C., talk, O'Connor noted other nations, where dictators order up justice from a compliant bench. "It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.''
Read the whole editorial here:
http://www.sfgate.com/...
Maybe we should just count our blessings that her speech received any notice at all. But searches of the newspaper's archives on her name or the word "dictatorship" confirm that the editorial was the very first mention of the speech at all. In other words, there was NO coverage of the speech or reaction to it as news at all anywhere in a newspaper in nearly a week.
Now that I think about it, I don't think that, even on Keith Olbermann's show last Friday, that I have heard ANY Republican reaction to Justice O'Connor's speech.
KEITH OLBERMANN, HOST: Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?
The beginnings of a dictatorship? Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O`Connor actually talked about the beginnings of a dictatorship here in America? A dictatorship, D-I-C-T-A-T-O-R-ship? A dictatorship, did you say? Justice O`Connor`s remarkable speech.
And remarkable poll numbers. Nearly seven out of 10 of us think the country`s headed in the wrong direction.
Dictatorship, huh?....Dictatorship. Not Dick Cheney, dic-tatorship.
Our fifth story on the COUNTDOWN, it`s one thing for us to throw around references to what seem to be details from George Orwell`s novel "1984" springing to life, thanks to post-9/11 thinking.
It`s quite another when the same kind of comments come from a just-retired justice of the U.S. Supreme Court at a major American institution of learning on the subject of political interference in judicial decision making, and the subject of dictatorship, or at least its earliest embryonic form, Sandra Day O`Connor making those remarks in a speech recorded neither on video- nor publicly on audiotape at Georgetown University.
According to National Public Radio, she told the assembly there that "It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."
Wait, there`s more. And there`s a name, as recapped by NPR. O`Connor also said, "Attacks on the judiciary by some Republican leaders pose a direct threat to our constitutional freedoms. I am against judicial reforms driven by nakedly partisan reasoning. We must be ever-vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies."
Those last remarks appear to refer specifically to the former House minority leader, Tom DeLay. O`Connor did not mention his name, but quoted his attacks on judges at meetings last year of Justice Sunday, the conservative Christian group to which DeLay vented after the Terri Schiavo rulings.
The retired justice pulled no punches. She noted that interference with an independent judiciary, not unlike that attempted by Mr. DeLay and other Republicans, had allowed dictatorship to flourish in countries formerly subjected to communist rule.
Those specifics might be a little strong for the average American, but not the general point. Sixty-seven percent of those polled by the Associated Press saying the country is on the wrong track, only 30 percent now thinking we are headed in the right direction, the man in charge of the direction and the country not faring much better in the same poll.
Sixty percent say they disapprove of the job Mr. Bush is doing, 37 percent approve, the lowest rating in the AP poll during Mr. Bush`s presidency. Not that such numbers bother him.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
Keith goes on to discuss O'Connor's remarks with Time magazine reporter Mike Allen, who predicts that:"I think now that you`ve called attention to it, it`s going to launch 1,000 op-eds, because there was very little coverage of this today. A chief justice, any justice, as you know, chooses their words very carefully. And Justice O`Connor, former justice, well knew the ripples that this would cause."
Ripples? The Chronicle editorial is the FIRST that I've seen, and I HAVE been looking.
I think that the Democrats and Senator Feingold are missing an IMPORTANT opportunity here. I think the Democrats, whether they support the censure resolution or not, should be hammering the point in public that a well-respected REPUBLICAN Supreme Court justice has said that the United States is at the beginning stages of a DICTATORSHIP because of the attacks on the courts and our constitution's checks and balances.
If nothing else there needs to be a full, non-partisan investigation into the warrantless domestic spying on Americans BEFORE any legislation is passed that would retroactively let Bush off the hook, or that would criminalize any further leaks or whistleblowing that would be neccesary to learn the full extent of what has transpired so far.
In calling our Senators about the censure resolution, let us ask if they have a reaction or statement about Sandra Day O'Connor's remarks as well. In our letters to the editor and online petitions, let us make the connection between the censure resolution and the grave danger to the Republic that Senator Feingold is seeking to address. Instead of letting this slip down the memory hole, let us make "censure" and "dictatorship" two words ALWAYS linked together in the public's mind.
The mainstream media almost never connects the dots any more because the "big picture" is WAAAAY too unflattering to their corproate overlords. But connecting the dots is something that we can do for them until average Americans can start asking the same questions we are. and that is impoprtant, because if the Bush administration is ever to be held accountable for its crimes against this country and the world, we need to show that it isn't just a few fringe liberals worried about the creeping loss of our democracy, but some of the most distinguished members own party as well.
As they used to say in peeWee's PlayHouse: Connect the Dots. LA LA LA LA!
Good article on O'Connor's remarks here:
Dictatorship is the danger
A Reagan-appointed supreme court justice voices her fears over attacks on US democracy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...