Tuesday, November 1, 2005
Clear thinking?
Have you noticed how sloppy the logic and thinking processes of public speakers can be? It can't be good for us, the populace. Today's case in point is Sen. Patrick Leahey. In the Senate chamber yesterday he was criticizing Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito. I have no opinion of Alito as yet, only a wild notion that reading and listening to his words will be lots more instructive than jumping to assumptions right off the bat. Of course, silly me, I'm forgetting that anyone Bush would nominate has cooties and satanic horns. Anyway, aside from the cooties, Leahey listed other problems he has with Alito and, in particular, that "he won't bring any more diversity to the Supreme Court than I do to the Senate". Which raises a few questions of my own:
1. What kind of diversity is Leahey looking for? race? religion? political persuasion? sexual preference? background? specific schooling? what? (he didn't offer any specifics)I'm guessing just off the top of my head that he'd have had a fit if Bush had nominated a black lesbian conservative which would, after all, have brought a whole bunch of diversity with one person. I'm also pretty sure the answer to #3 is "no". But those are logical conclusions.
2. When did diversity become an important issue for the Supreme Court? I haven't heard it mentioned once ever before; have you? Is this one of those straw men, put up with the express purpose of being knocked down?
3. If diversity is the "it" characteristic, and since Leahey doesn't bring diversity to the Senate and yet makes such a big point of it, are we to think that he's urging his constituents to impeach or at least recall him?
Labels: huh?
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