November 8, 2005

Judiciary

Hilary Cosell’s Rant against Harriet Miers Samuel Alito

Carroll Andrew Morse

Hilary Cosell’s op-ed in today’s Projo bodes well for the Alito nomination. Her attack against judge Alito stumbles, bumbles, and ultimately fumbles (Hilary is the daughter of legendary sportscaster Howard Cosell). If this is the best liberal Democrats have to deploy against Judge Alito, then his nomination is going to sail through.

It’s a strange op-ed, little more than an extended session of name-calling. She makes a major but common factual error, saying that Planned Parenthood v. Casey proves that Alito is “against a woman's right to choose”. The case did not involve school choice at all. And if it is abortion rights she is referring to, Planned Parenthood v. Casey does not support her assertion either. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Alito applied the precedents established by Sandra Day O’Connor to decide that spousal notification – not spousal consent – was not an constitutionally undue burden on access to abortion. In 3 other abortion related cases, Alito has interpreted the law in favor of the policy-outcomes that abortion supporters desire.

Cosell wants the Senate to apply a religious test to judge Alito.

Alito's hitting the halls of Congress, chatting up the Senate, all smiles, all thoughtful countenance, all full of promises about precedent and laws of the land, and, no doubt, eventual refusal to answer direct questions about his religious views and political agenda.
I am curious how direct questions about religious views are relevant. What religious views disqualify someone from a seat on the Supreme Court?

Most interestingly, Cosell’s op-ed goes beyond the usual Democratic talking points, into a total disassociation from reality. She accuses Alito, who has served on the Federal appeals court for fifteen years, of being a “crony”. She talks about Alito, a Catholic from New Jersey, as swimming in the “evangelical swamp of radical-right-wing politics”. It sounds more like she is describing Harriet Miers than Samuel Alito. I wonder if this op-ed was written originally as an anti-Miers piece and after Miers withdrew and Alito was nominated, she didn't want to have to start from scratch, so she changed the name and added a paragraph or two about Alito. That would explain the non-sequitirs about Alito as an evangelical Bush crony.

Ms. Cosell's father got away with obnoxious rants because he actually knew something about the subjects he ranted about. Ms. Cosell herself simply rants from ignorance.

8:43 AM
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Miss "Carroll Andrew Morse", if you wish to call Miss Cosell's article a long "rant", then you should look at your comment. In fact, your comment is just one long rant about how she ranted!!!
I personally love Miss Cosell's writing and find it to be intellectually stimulating and extremely insightful. Just becuase you are swimming in the "evangelical swamp of radical-right-wing politics” with Alito by your side, doesn't mean you can accuse Miss Cosell of being ignorant, because in fact YOU are the ignorant one Miss Morse.
Miss Cosell shares her father's intellect in the fact that they both use an extended vocabulary that branches off from the standard, dull, drawl of the average American. In addition, you made a huge mistake with classifying her as ignorant, because she is far from it. Both her and her father are "telling it like it is".

Posted by: Jon Salamon at December 26, 2005 8:14 PM

hey you f****** morse lady u r so wrong...samuel alito is a threat to the u.s. miss cosell's article is great and "tells it like it is" just like mr salamon said and you have a lot of gall to even say that she ranted. you seriously need to reconsider your point of view...you disgusting conservatives need to be put a stop to!!!!!!!!!!!! go miss cosell and may her father rest in piece and i hope he is announcing everything that is going on in heaven!!!!!

Posted by: Bill Harper at January 1, 2006 7:41 PM

I would personally like to concur with both Mr. Salamon and Mr. Harper. Lady, get your goddamn facts right and your head and opinions OUT OF MY VAGINA. MYYY vagina! not yours! my body is NOT your body, is NOT samuel alito's body: thus, Ms. Morse, neither one of you have ANY RIGHT to say ANYTHING about removing MY CHOICE to have an abortion for an undeveloped egg that is residing in MY BODY. i sincerely hope that if you have any daughters that they end up pregnant, in a back alley, with a coat hanger shoved up their vaginas because they can't find a doctor to take care of the problem for them. you and samuel alito will be the ones with the blood on their hands. one last thing- thank you. you are exactly what America needs to be rid of. i'm so happy i received a reminder of why i need to go to washington D.C. and fight for my civil rights, my daughter's rights, my son's rights, my boyfriend's rights, and the rights that the women preceeding me fought so damn hard to give to me. you are helping set us back with choosing to be a right to lifer, and not allowing women to use their basic, god given right. the right to have their OWN bodies, the right to choose NOT to be simply a vessel for producing offspring. get out of my vagina.

Posted by: Payton Turner at January 25, 2006 6:33 PM

You are one dumb ****. I agree with Mr. Salamon I think you should go eat a pack of cyanide and DIE.

Posted by: Conor Swanberg at February 9, 2006 9:37 PM