On a tip from Ed Kilbane
Video 222
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Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Joe Biden, 1992: No Supreme Court Pick Until After Election
On a tip from Ed Kilbane
Joe Biden, 1992: No Supreme Court Pick Until After Election
Vice President Joe Biden spoke out forcefully against appointing a new Supreme Court justice in an election year–in 1992 when he was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and George H.W. Bush was running for re-election.
Footage of Biden delivering an emphatic floor speech on the subject on June 25, 1992, was unearthed by C-SPAN on Monday.
Video 221
Biden argued, in part:
…it is my view that if a Supreme Court justice resigns tomorrow or within the next several weeks, or resigns at the end of the summer, President Bush should consider following the practice of a majority of his predecessors and not — and not — name a nominee until after the November election is completed.
The Senate, too, Mr. President must consider how it would respond to a Supreme Court vacancy that would occur in the full throes of an election year. It is my view that if the President goes the way of Presidents [Millard] Fillmore and [Andrew] Johnson, and presses an election year nomination, the Senate Judiciary Committee should seriously consider not scheduling confirmation hearings on the nomination until after the political campaign season is over.
Biden also argued that it would be possible for the Supreme Court to operate without one of its members.
As the United Press International agency reported that day: “Biden conceded that the court might have to operate with a member short this fall, but added, ‘This may be the only course of action that historical practice and practical realism can sustain.'”
Biden added that while it was the president’s “right” to nominate justices to the Supreme Court, it was equally his “right” to oppose and to block them.
The New York Times reported that Biden, evading any responsibility for the nastiness of the confirmation fights over Robert H. Bork (who was rejected) and Clarence Thomas (who was eventually approved), explained that it was necessary to postpone any new potential appointments to the Court because of the danger of the “radical right”:
Mr. Biden said it was inevitable that the Supreme Court would become slightly more conservative, given that Republicans control the White House and moderate Southern Democrats are a force in the Senate.
But he added that President Bush and his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, had sought to move the Court sharply to the right, naming justices who would adopt a conservative agenda. He said both Presidents had “ceded power in the nominating process to the radical right”
“It is this power grab that has unleashed the powerful and divisive forces that have ravaged the confirmation process,” he said. “Either we must have a compromise in the selection of future justices or I must oppose those who are the product of this ideological nominating process.”
USA Today reported further that Biden said: “‘Can your Supreme Court nomination and confirmation processes, so racked by discord and bitterness, be repaired in a presidential election year? History teaches us that this is extremely unlikely.”
Interestingly, some influential Republicans agreed with Biden that Supreme Court appointments should not be made in an election year — taking the same position they have adopted today against President Barack Obama nominating a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia, who died earlier this month before a new president takes office in 2017.
Biden told the New York Times “that he believed members of the Supreme Court are aware that a confirmation battle in an election year would be so divisive that anyone contemplating retirement would probably delay doing so until after the election.”
However, Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY), the Minority Whip, was quoted by National Public Radio disagreeing with Biden: “It’s not for the chairman of the judiciary committee to decide who the president of the United States submits as a nominee to the United States Supreme Court.”
Attorney General William Barr told Larry King in an interview on CNN that the president should nominate a new justice:
KING: Let’s touch some other bases. Senator Biden, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said today if a vacancy occurs the President should not name a new member of the United States Supreme Court. He should wait till after the election. Do you agree?
MR. BARR: Well, that’s his advice. I think the President’s responsibility under the Constitution is to nominate people to fill vacancies, and the President will make up his own mind as to-
KING: I mean, but if he asked your advice, what would you say?
MR. BARR: I’d say we should go ahead and nominate somebody for a vacancy. I think it’s important that, when the Court meets in the fall, it have a full complement of nine justices.
The Bush White House itself also disagreed with Biden. Spokesperson Judy Smith was quoted by USA Today: “The president alone has the responsibility to nominate justices. … In the event of a vacancy, he will discharge his duties under the Constitution as he sees fit.”
Monday, February 22, 2016
As it turns out Rubio is an anchor baby
Rubio is Cuban. But if he's elected president this sends a clear message to the millions of illegal Mexicans who live in this country dropping anchor babies.
[YOUR CHILD CAN BECOME POTUS]
And 20 years from now when the floodgates are open and our country is no longer recognizable under the José Garcia administration you can thank the Democrats. They would sell their own mother to a brothel if they thought they could garner votes.
-----------------------------------
Donald Trump muses about Marco Rubio's eligibility to run for president
Donald Trump, left, speaks with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., during a Republican presidential debate in South Carolina. (AP)
Marco Rubio has joined Ted Cruz in Donald Trump’s crosshairs.
Fresh off his Saturday win in the South Carolina Republican primary, Trump said Sunday he didn’t know whether Rubio, a Florida senator who finished second, was eligible to run for president and that “the lawyers have to determine that.”
“I don’t know,” Trump told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.” “I really – I’ve never looked at it, George. I honestly have never looked at it. As somebody said, he’s not. And I retweeted it. I have 14 million people between Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and I retweet things, and we start dialogue and it’s very interesting.”
Rubio brushed aside Trump’s assertions later on “This Week.”
“This is a pattern,” Rubio said. “This is a game he plays. He says something that’s edgy and outrageous and then the media flocks and covers that. And then no one else can get any coverage on anything else.
“And that worked where there were 15 people running for president. It’s not going to work anymore. I’m going to spend zero time on his interpretation of the Constitution with regards to eligibility.”
Trump was questioned on the issue after he retweeted a supporter Saturday who made the allegation and linked to a video from the Powdered Wig Society, a conservative news and commentary website. That video features an unidentified woman claiming someone can only be a “natural-born citizen” if the person’s father was a U.S. citizen.
The Constitution states only a “natural-born citizen” can be president, though it does not explicitly define that phrase.
Rubio, whose parents came to the U.S. from Cuba in the 1950s, was born in Florida in 1971. His parents were not U.S. citizens at the time.
Trump’s musings about Rubio’s eligibility is comparable to how his similar feud began with Cruz, a Texas senator, though that argument has since intensified.
Trump has argued that Cruz, who finished third in South Carolina, may not be a “natural-born citizen” because he was born in Canada, even though his mother was a U.S. citizen at the time of Cruz’s birth.
Numerous legal scholars have said both Cruz and Rubio are considered “natural-born citizens,” though Trump has said other experts disagree.
“I mean, let people make their own determination,” Trump said Sunday.
Similar questions of eligibility dogged previous Republican contenders such as John McCain in 2008, George Romney in 1968 and Barry Goldwater in 1964. McCain was born in Panama, Romney was born in Mexico and Goldwater was born in Arizona before it became an official U.S. state.
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Images Surface of Bernie Sanders' 1963 Arrest in Chicago
A decades-old photo showing the arrest of Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during a 1963 protest on the South Side of Chicago surfaced Saturday, according to several reports.
The Chicago Tribune released the photo from its archives Saturday morning. Sanders’ campaign confirmed the imaged showed the candidate as a 21-year-old student at the University of Chicago — then a civil rights activist — being taken by Chicago officers toward a police wagon in the Englewood neighborhood.
Chicago Tribune
We dug through our archives, and found this photo from 1963.
Look closely. That's Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders being arrested during a South Side civil rights protest.
When the photo was taken, Sanders was a 21-year-old University of Chicago student.
Read more: http://trib.in/1Wx6Yb5
"Bernie identified it himself," senior campaign adviser Tad Devine told the Tribune. "He looked at it — he actually has his student ID from the University of Chicago in his wallet — and he said, 'Yes, that indeed is (me).'"
Also on Saturday, the campaign confirmed a video uploaded earlier in the week by a film company shows Sanders' arrest, The New York Times reported.
Devine told the Times the candidate identified himself in the video, shared by Kartemquin Films, by the watch he is seen wearing.
The footage also shows the Jan. 14, 1964 edition of the Chicago Tribune. The line, "Sanders was arrested Aug. 12 at 74th and Lowe and charged with resisting arrest" is highlighted in an article titled "Race Protest Cases of 159 are decided."
According to both outlets, the protest was over segregation in Chicago Public Schools. Sanders was found guilty of resisting arrest and fined $25, the Tribune reports.
He was a leader of the Congress of Racial Equality, a civil rights group, during his time at the University of Chicago, according to the Tribune.
Not to be outdone by "the Bern's" escapades Killary issued the following statement:
Saturday, February 20, 2016
Classic Clinton
Hillary: I’ve Always Tried ‘To Level With The American People’
Video 220
Now you know why her trustworthy numbers are in the tank!
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