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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Hey reporters, why not step away from the left-wing talking points for just a minute

Many of the up and coming members of the Gang of 500 in Washington, DC — those reporters and pundits who help shape and cover inside the beltway conventional wisdom — lean left of center. In so doing, they are sympathetic to the talking points of the left.

I’m sure for the last 72 hours, in the run up to the Obamacare decision, many reporters have been meditating over the talking points from Center for American Progress and the Obama campaign.

The basic talking point goes like this: the five Justices of the Supreme Court have usurped democracy because everybody that’s anybody knows the individual mandate is constitutional.

We won’t know until later today what the Court decides. What we do know is that the left’s last minute spin willfully chooses to ignore a few points that reporters, if they are competent, should notice.

First, while the left would rather focus on the conservatives on the court, the implication can be countered that the left-wing justices are less persuadable than the conservatives. Everybody is pretty sure that Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan will vote with the Administration. Kagan was a part of that Administration while it passed this law, after all. Yet many Republicans voted to put her on the Court – while President Obama himself voted against Chief Justice Roberts and attempted to filibuster Justice Alito.

We do not know about John Roberts or Anthony Kennedy, two Republican appointees. It seems the left-wing spin is actually more damning against the left than the right considering, even with the left-wing handwringing they are subtly admitting the Republican appointees are more persuadable.

Second, the majority of Americans oppose Obamacare and most Americans, or at least a sizable plurality, think it is unconstitutional. What does it say about the arrogant pretentiousness of the left that they’d rather us look to a group of liberal law professors than the American people?

Third, if we are going to look at liberal law professors, consider some of these law professors less hysterical commentary about Chief Justice John Roberts. They viewed him as a cypher during oral arguments and many are now speculating that he will write the majority opinion. Some have speculated that, should Kennedy go with the liberals, Roberts will go too so he can control and write the opinion, making it as limited as possible in scope.

If Roberts does write the opinion and comes out swinging against the over reach in Obamacare, I wonder how many liberals will remember that Roberts and his wife are pro-life Catholics and his wife has been very active in the pro-life Catholic community. Maybe, just maybe, some liberals will conclude Kathleen Sebelius should have waited until after the decision to go to war with the Catholic Church. In fact, should the case go against the Obama Administration, I give it no more than 12 hours before some liberal pundit points out the number of Catholics on the Court and tries, yet again, to blame the Church.

COMMENTS

  • renny

    that we have to accept Roe because the Sup. C. says so. If the left really wants to attack the Court today, immediately the pro-lifers should attack on Roe.

  • daniel22

    immediately after this case was submitted to the Court were running for the Court to overturn Obamacare. It has been just recently that the talk has started to turn to the Court upholding the “law”. I probably would not have noticed so much except for after all of the threats veiled and otherwise against the conservative justices now sitting. One thing that I am counting on is that there will not be much in the way of acceptance of the verdict as the issue was ill-conceived and executed to begin with.
    If Obamacare is struck down will the Great One add another executive order to his file? What will Bandwagon Boehner do too. He has shown as much backbone as a jellyfish except when in front of a camera.

  • zollistar

    We all look for places to hoist our respective wagons!

  • gmscan

    There are nine people on the Court. If they decide one way, the Left will consider them wise and nonpartisan. If they decide the other way the Left will consider them partisan hacks. Exact same people. Me? My opinion of the Court and the Justices will be the same whichever way they go on this case.

  • renl57

    I didn’t like some of the comments I saw coming from some conservatives over the Supremes’ ruling on immigration on Monday:

    “Roberts sold us out”
    “What happened to Roberts?”
    etc.

    As if Roberts was supposed to be “our boy” on the Supreme Court–our puppet who votes the way we want him too just because Bush appointed him.

    Roberts is a fine jurist,. And even when he issues a ruling that goes against my *political* views, I realize that he has to go with what he believes the Constitution requires.

  • edree

    Because they don’t know how. They have no concept of how to report or analyze news. They are not taughtso in college nor on the job, they have no idea how to actually search and question, and they are not rewarded for learning how to actually be a reporter. The answer lies in the news media culture.

  • rdm42

    if it had been a four – four decision, it would have defaulted back to the previous court case,. Perhaps he didn’t want that case to apply – and instead authored a more limited in scope one?

  • http://www.plumbbobblog.com Plumb_Bob

    … in a clueless sort of way. You’re a decent guy, Erick, even if you are living in a dream world.

    Why are you bothering to answer the Democrats’ spin story as though it were a real argument? Democrat spin is not about facts, or arguments, or truth; it’s about the sound that reaches the voter’s ears, and how voters might react to it.

    Democrats have demolished any possibility of a sound, democratic republic by abandoning truth as a standard and resorting to whatever works. They are now full-time propagandists. They automatically call any decision that reduces their power an assault on democracy, and then cast around for words that will support that claim somehow.

    Your time is better spent (1) pointing out that that is what they are doing, and (2) reiterating the principles that make the correct decisions correct, and explaining how they protect us all.

    Arguing with Democrats has been a waste of time for at least 30 years, and probably a lot longer than that.

  • funwithknives

    to see how ‘the other half lived.’

    One year and no more. T’was awful to behold.
    I let it lapse and got offers for 3 more years.
    This was at least 12 years ago. No telling how it has morphed since.

  • schusteraj

    We need to keep cameras on Boehner 24/7. Just keep a conservative camera crew on him all the time, and maybe he’ll grow a backbone.

  • adair

    and as I listened to the Justices pummel the Government’s arguer,I was amazed they hadn’t upheld it 100%. I guess many in D.C. have gone to the Boehner School of Saying What Conservatives Want to Hear.