Palin Shows Ignorance Of The Supreme Court

Except for the Supreme Court ruling legalizing a woman's right to choose, Sarah Palin knows nothing about what the Court has done. That's right, nothing, nada, zip. She wasn't asked if she knew there were nine justices currently sitting, so perhaps she knew what most grade school children are taught. Of course, kids in high school are instructed on Marbury v. Madison, Dred Scott, Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education and dozens of other influential cases throughout our history that have helped define us as a nation. One would think and hope a woman that wants to be a heartbeat from the Presidency would know this stuff but sadly, you'd be wrong.

From Politico:

Of concern to McCain's campaign, however, is a remaining and still-undisclosed clip from Palin's interview with Couric last week that has the political world buzzing.

The Palin aide, after first noting how "infuriating" it was for CBS to purportedly leak word about the gaffe, revealed that it came in response to a question about Supreme Court decisions.

After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases.

There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.

That silence was most likely deafening to Couric and most certainly will be to the American people. We as a nation demand more of our leaders. When those that wish to ascertain power from the consent of the governed can not even recall what it is one of the three co-equal branches of government does is a sad statement for that candidate. Meanwhile on the Democratic ticket, we have Joe Biden, who is well-versed on the Court, including an incredible display of insight and tact that led to the defeat of Robert Bork's nomination to the Court. That contest made Republicans red in the face but no one could deny his commanding presence when it came to fulfilling the Senate's duty to scrutinize the President's pick for the Supreme Court. I seriously wonder if Sarah Palin is aware of that time in our recent history.

McCain Bombs On The View, Lies About His Lies

There was no singing about Iran today when John McCain went on The View to face the primarily female crowd. The choice of Sarah Palin didn't help much either and despite having a friend in Elisabeth Hasselbeck as a co-host, he got grilled on an assortment of issues. Mentioning his wish to overturn Roe v Wade elicited a round of boos from the crowd. Whoopi then took his "strict constitutionalist" line to a logical conclusion and wondered out loud what would stop the court from overturning amendments that abolished slavery. Then to top it all off, he blatantly lied that he's never flip-flopped on an issue and challenged anyone to refute that.

Well ThinkProgress was ready to hit that bullshit right out of the park:

The flip-flop document notes that McCain has changed his position even on the four areas he cited — spending, climate change, the war in Iraq, and torture of prisoners:

SPENDING: The McCain campaign has said that it will balance the budget by the end of McCain’s first time. But chief economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said McCain would balance the budget by the end of his second term.

CLIMATE CHANGE: In 1999, McCain opposed lifting the ban on offshore drilling, saying that it was just the “special interests in Washington” that advocated it. In 2008, McCain announced that “there are areas off our coasts that should be open to exploration and exploitation.”

IRAQ CONDUCT: He said in 2004 that Donald Rumsfeld was doing “a fine job” and was “an honorable man.” But by 2008, McCain was arguing that he was “the only one that said Rumsfeld had to go.”

TORTURE: In 2005, McCain pushed President Bush to sign a bill that would prohibit “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” of anyone in U.S. government custody. But in 2008, McCain voted against the Intelligence Authorization Bill, which requires the intelligence community to abide by the same standards as articulated in the Army Field Manual and bans waterboarding.

See our full document here. Steve Benen has compiled another flip-flop list here.

See the thing is, McCain thinks he can just absolve himself of everything he's ever said up until the moment he goes on The View, or at one of his town hall events and without a doubt at the upcoming debates. He'll lie about anything and do so with one of those fake smiles on his face. To him it is all about putting out a narrative, regardless of the facts. That is why we on the left (center and right are free to do so as well) must combat his lying from one moment to the next. With that litany of lies, we can craft it into a narrative of our own, one of truth and honest to goodness muckraking that exposes the campaign McCain has run and ultimately the type of President he would become.

What Is Roe V Wade All About? Don't Ask Cindy McCain

Cindy McCain may not be the one that is running for President, but when it comes to issues that affect women, you'd think she'd at least know the basic facts of a few issues. One of the most important social debates that Republicans have used effectively as a wedge is abortion rights. Democrats want to keep Roe v. Wade on the books, keeping abortion legal for those that make the choice to have one. So when Cindy went on Katie Couric's show, a simple answer, either wanting to keep the practice legal and disagreeing with her husband and Sarah Palin, or toeing the party line.

Check out what she had to say:

Couric: And do you believe Roe V. Wade should be overturned?

McCain: No. no.

Couric: No. Why not? Your husband does.

McCain: No. I don't think he does.

Couric: He believes it should be overturned. That's what he told me, and that it should go to the states.

McCain: Well, in that respect. Yes, yeah, I do. I understand what you're saying now. It's a states issue.

Couric: So, you believe it should be overturned or shouldn't be overturned.

McCain: I believe it's a states issue. That I do believe.

Oh dear. OH, DEAR. The campaign later clarified that Cindy McCain does not believe Roe v. Wade should be overturned, even though, you might know this already but, it was the express purpose of the Roe decision not to let abortion become a "states issue."

It seems that she doesn't have a clue as to what she thinks. Also, the campaign itself doesn't really know what is going on if they allowed that "opinion" to be clarified that implies she opposes her husband after agreeing with him. It looks like Sarah Palin's mom isn't the only family surrogate that needs a large dose of GOP message control.

Roe Versus Wade, One Score And Fifteen Years Ago

Knocking out the archaic term, thirty-five years ago the Berger-led Supreme Court decided in favor of Jane Roe, leading to freedom for women to choose for themselves if they wanted to have an abortion or not. Ever since that day, pro-life anti-choice advocated have sought to dismantle that freedom for women and they have been getting closer and closer, especially during the Bush Administration. The court as it stands today is on a precipice for allowing this law to remain on the books.

As a nation, we are about to decide on a President that will most likely pick one, two or even three new judges and either make the Roberts court more conservative or not. At the moment there are six viable candidates, and you should know where they stand.

From DailyKos:

• Hillary Clinton:

  "I have an obligation to my constituents to make sure that I cast my vote for Chief Justice of the United States for someone I am convinced will be steadfast in protecting fundamental women's rights, civil rights, privacy rights, and who will respect the appropriate separation of powers among the three branches."
  — Statement on the Nomination of John Roberts to be Chief Justice, September 22, 2005

• John Edwards:

  "I must oppose [Judge John Roberts'] nomination to be our country's Chief Justice...I do so because we do know the views and positions he took prior to the recent hearings. Judge Roberts opposed efforts to remedy discrimination on the basis of sex and race. He opposed measures to protect voting rights. He denigrated the right to privacy and a woman's right to choose."
  — E-mail to Supporters, September 21, 2005

• Barack Obama:

  "I think that most Americans recognize that this is a profoundly difficult issue for the women and families who make these decisions. They don't make them casually. And I trust women to make these decisions, in conjunction with their doctors and their families and their clergy, and I think that's where most Americans are."
  — Democratic debate, April 26, 2007

• Mike Huckabee:

  Sometimes we talk about why we are importing so many people in our work force. It might be because for the last 35 years we have aborted more than 1 million people who would have been in our workforce had we not had the holocaust of liberalized abortion under a flawed of Supreme Court ruling in 1973."
  (Excerpts from speech to Family Research Council Values Voters Summit, 10.20.2007)

• John McCain:

  "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."
  (Jim Davenport, Associated Press, 2.18.2007)

• Mitt Romney:

  "You cannot have a litmus test. But you can appoint justices that follow the Constitution and if they do that they'll overturn Roe v. Wade."
  (Hannity & Colmes, Fox News, 9.5.2007)

Like MissLaura at dKos said, it might not be the only issue, but it should definitely weigh on ever voter's mind come November. Picking a Republican will most certainly strip this right from the 150 some million women in America, choosing a Democrat will most likely keep it in place.

Partial-Birth Abortion Law Upheld By SCOTUS

I've heard some Democrats say that Bush only uses the social conservative issues to rile the base, but not ever really wanting to repeal Roe v. Wade. That is nonsense and Bush's new Supreme Court affirmed it this morning. In a 5-4 decision, the 2003 Partial-Birth Abortion Act was upheld in Gonzales v. Carhart reversed a ruling made in 2000 that denied a similar bill to be constitutional.

This is a very sad day for those that believe in the right for a woman to choose. Although Roe v. Wade was not specifically overturned, this marks a turning point for the Court in how it views the question of abortion rights. The decision is the first time abortion rights were restricted in the 34 years since the landmark Roe ruling.

The dissenters, led by Ruth Bader Ginsberg, were extremely unhappy:

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, speaking out in the courtroom for the dissenters, called the ruling "an alarming decision" that refuses "to take seriously" the Court's 1992 decisions reaffirming most of Roe v. Wade and its 2000 decision in Stenberg v. Carhart striking down a state partial-birth abortion law.

Ginsburg, in a lengthy statement, said "the Court's opinion tolerates, indeed applauds, federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. For the first time since Roe, the Court blesses a prohibition with no exception protecting a woman's health." She said the federal ban "and the Court's defense of it cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this Court -- and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women's lives. A decision of the character the Court makes today should not have staying power."

That final comment, concluding remarks delivered matter-of-factly, clearly was a suggestion that the ruling might not survive new appointments to the Court -- just as the arrival of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and, especially, Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. -- had led to the switch she claimed had come about this time. Ginsburg pointedly noted that the Court is "differently imposed that it was when we last considered a restrictive abortion regulation" -- in Stenberg in 2000.

There is a reason conservatives have been so focused on the judicial system and replacing judges with faithful tools like Justice Roberts and Alito. If not for George Bush, this would not have happened. Yet there are consequences for our actions, and when GWB Jr got elected, we were in for a terrible time. 2009 can not come fast enough. I pray that the time lapses quickly without incidents like this, yet they seem to come all the time.