[From one of our newest members, 2435 who — until the Neocon heterosexual (and must-be-married!) white men’s mastery of the universe is complete — will still be known as XicanoPwr. He’s been writing several analytical and researched diaries here – susanhu.]
Part II: The Radical Right’s Hypocrisy
How did conservatives – along with the religious right – successfully defeat Dudya’s Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers? Where did the Democratic Party go wrong? One a side-by-side comparison between now confirmed Chief Justice John Roberts and Miers, they had the same views that matter to the GOP – pro-life, pro-business, and a fundalmentalist.
Yet former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott reacted philosophically at her demise.
“The president, in my opinion, made a bad choice here,” the former Senate majority leader told Fox News Thursday. “In a month, who will remember Harriet Miers?”
Chief Justice John Roberts
As noted on Law.com those who do know Roberts will confirm that he is a reliable conservative who can be counted on to undermine if not immediately overturn liberal landmarks like abortion rights and affirmative action. The minute Dudya announced Roberts, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council was ecstatic that Dudya had kept his promise by nominating “someone along the lines of a Scalia or a Thomas, and that is exactly what he has done” while Pat Robertson gleefully exulted that Roberts “was at the top of the list of candidates that Jay Sekulow and the ACLJ [an organization founded by Robertson] put together.”
Below the fold, Harriet Miers and The Radical Right Gender Natural Policy … along with some terrific Bill Maher quotes …
Harriet Miers
James Dobson, founder of the evangelical Christian organization Focus on the Family, told his listeners on his radio program that Karl Rove made a call to him to discuss Miers’ religious beliefs before Bush announced her nomination October 3.
Dobson also told his listeners Rove assured him Mier’s is “an evangelical Christian…[and] that she is from a very conservative church, which is almost universally pro-life; that she had taken on the American Bar Association on the issue of abortion and fought for a policy that would not be supportive of abortion.” [emphasis mine]
The Radical Right Gender Natural Policy
According to HBO’s Bill Maher, it had nothing to do with her mastery of constitutional law. And it wasn’t about cronyism, either. Neither if she did overturn Roe v. Wade or set back civil rights for another generation.
Miers’ defeat had to do more what the Radical Right didn’t know about her. What was an enigma to the Radical Right was her sexuality. Bill Maher explained it best on his Oct 14 show:
It’s not that Harriet Miers’ views are a mystery. It’s that her genitalia are a mystery. You see, Republicans have issues with sex, or as they call it, “inserting pork.” Undefined sexuality in women makes them nervous.
Further commenting, he stated that “there are only three possibilities if you’ve never married or had kids by 60”: Miers is either “an asexual figure … [who] isn’t using the equipment God gave her for making babies,” a “practicing lesbian,” or “a slut.”
The last time “genitalia” was mentioned in a Supreme Court confirmation hearing was during the Clarence Thomas hearing. And we know happened there; when it seemed appeared that Hill’s testimony would end Thomas’ chances of being confirmed, Thomas’ supporters launched a masterful counter-attack to discredit Anita Hill. The attack was led by then right-wing activist David Brock. Brock would relentlessly villanized Hill with right wing propaganda. In 1992 Brock would latter write an article in the American Spectator claiming Hill had lied during the hearings and stating how she might be “a bit nutty and a bit slutty.” And Thomas won confirmation.
Earlier this month, Dotty Lynch, senior political editor for CBS News, brought up the possibilities sexism had a lot to do with Radical Right’s backlash. She said:
Why is it that battles for the Supreme Court have become more about sex than about the constitution? … Sex and sexism. Laura Bush and Ed Gillespie joined forces with Barbara Mikulski and Eleanor Smeal in suggesting that a lot of the opposition to Miers was based on sexism. Conservatives like Bill Kristol yelped that Republicans were using liberal arguments…
However, it is evident a conservatives apply a double standard when it comes to the gender issue. In many ways this type of concern can be found Justice David Souter’s 1990 Supreme Court confirmation hearing. In 2003, The Advocate reported when Papa Bush nominated Souter, the Radical Right believed Souter leaned with the far right. Like Miers, Souter also was a bachelor, so his appointment was greeted by hate filled speculation that he might be gay. Nevertheless, Souter survived, possibly because reporters found three of his former girlfriends.
“Souter had barely left the podium in the press room of the White House before Republican Party officials were raising ‘the 50-year-old bachelor thing,’ which was widely interpreted as a way of introducing speculation that Souter is homosexual,” Margaret Carlson wrote in Time magazine in August 1990, shortly after Souter’s nomination.
It’s important to point out I did not support her nomination because; 1) she did receive the seal of approval from Focus on the Family’s, Dr. James “Mr. Family Guy” Dobson, as well as the Reverends of Righteousness, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson; and 2) Dudya applied a religious litmus test, which is unconstitutional. The point I am trying to make is to show the Right Wingers hypocrisy when it comes to gender issues. As a Hispanic male, I am willing to admit, it is still a man’s world – a white man’s world. Something conservative women continually deny. It is interestingly to note, that it is often said that the Dudya is excessively loyal. Yet, when he had someone who he verbally said to be one of his very best friends; he had no problem kicking her to the curb to protect his white male Beltway Bandits.