
 |
|
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Oct 7, 2011
/ 9 Tishrei, 5772
Regrets? They've Had a Few
By
Cal Thomas
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
It's Supremes week in Washington and I don't mean the Motown group once led by Diana Ross.
The Supreme Court is back in session and the nine justices will consider a number of polarizing and controversial issues, not the least of which will likely be the constitutionality of "Obamacare" and its mandate that every citizen purchase health insurance.
Just in time for their reconvening is a fascinating new book by Texas writer William T. Harper (for which I have supplied a blurb). It's called "Second Thoughts: Presidential Regrets with their Supreme Court Nominations." (Buy it at a discount by clicking here.)
We tend to think of the justices as members of an elite club, smarter than any other legal mind and gifted with insight beyond the rest of us mere mortals. But as Harper writes, that has often not been the opinion of the presidents who nominated them, or the opinion of some of the justices toward the presidents who placed them on the bench.
Harper reveals that there is more going on under those long black robes than meets the eye. Such as: a justice who was having illicit sex in his judicial chambers; another was thrown twice into debtors prison; one received a lifetime membership in the Ku Klux Klan; another said the president who nominated him should die; still another called his president "a crippled son-of-a-b---h"; and one justice called a colleague "partially deranged."
| RECEIVE LIBERTY LOVING COLUMNISTS IN YOUR INBOX … FOR FREE! |
| Every weekday NewsAndOpinion.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". HUNDREDS of columnists and cartoonists regularly appear. Sign up for the daily update. It's free. Just click here. |
|
It gets worse. Among presidents who regretted their choices: One referred to his choice as a "dumb son-of-a-b---h"; another called the justice he nominated "the biggest damn fool thing I ever did"; still another said his nominee had "less backbone than a banana"; and one referred to his four court nominees, along with the other five members of the Court as "b-----ds."
Most of those criticized by the presidents who nominated them incurred their wrath by voting differently from what had been expected. In recent years, Republicans Ronald Reagan (Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy), George H.W. Bush (David Souter) and Richard Nixon (Harry Blackmun and Lewis Powell Jr.) sold their nominees as conservatives or "strict constructions," but they ended up mostly voting liberal. Nixon suffered the double indignity of seeing all three of his nominees vote against him in the Watergate tapes affair, which led to his resignation. Two of his nominees were rejected by the Senate.
Harper's book reminds us that even members of the Supreme Court are fallible and subject to the same temptations of lust, greed and hubris as any other human. "There were nominees and even members of the court," writes Harper, "who spent time in debtors prison, were indicted for murder, were locked up in an insane asylum, and more."
George Washington was not exempt from having problems with the Supreme Court. As our first president, he was uniquely able to name every justice. And yet the Senate rejected his selection of John Rutledge to be chief justice; William Cushing declined to serve as chief because of ill health; James Wilson landed in debtors prison because of "nefarious financial dealings"; Robert Harrison insulted the father of our country by refusing to serve at all; William Paterson was nominated, withdrew and then was re-nominated; and Samuel Chase was impeached.
Even Washington must have had "second thoughts" about some of these men.
Scoundrels and schemers populate the history of the Supreme Court, along with intrigue, back-stabbing and political one-upsmanship. It reads like a political novel, but it is fact.
"Second Thoughts" is self-published, which is too bad because it ought to be more widely distributed. For those who want to learn more about the Supreme Court and fill in some gaps in their knowledge of American history, the book is available by clicking here.
You won't be disappointed.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
| BUY THE BOOK |
| Click HERE to purchase it at a discount. (Sales help fund JWR.). |
|
Cal Thomas Archives JWR contributor Cal Thomas is co-author with Bob Beckel, a liberal Democratic Party strategist, of "Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That is Destroying America". Comment by clicking here.
© 2011, Tribune Media Services, Inc.
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|