Posted on 06/28/2012 8:18:24 AM PDT by The Looking Spoon
Thank you for a thoughtful and informed post.
With your understanding of the problem, I sincerely urge you to get involved in formulating a solution. We need you.
I truly believe that Roberts opened a door for us, both by characterizing the mandate as a congress-imposed tax, and by encouraging revolt by the states over Medicaid.
I also think that this ruling puts wind in the sails of the Romney campaign, whereas a complete rejection of the law by SCOTUS would have energized the left.
Wasn’t Roberts nominated before Alito was even proposed?
I haven’t read enough of the ruling to make any kind of judgement on what the next step might be, but it seems to me that the ruling was correct as a tax. Congress has the power to tax, or not to tax. Just like the Bush Tax cuts that are going to run out at the end of the year. Congress can either extend it, or let it run out. Our job is to elect the right people in congress to not tax. Simple as that. No money, no mandate. I believe this to be a hollow victory and they know it. Roberts just put this back on congress to deal with this as a tax increase. In an election year. How nice....
I think it’s gone beyond “We elect congress”.
Who? This POS?
Steve Schmidt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the football player, see Steve Schmidt (Canadian football).
Schmidt at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Knife Fight
Steve Schmidt (born 1970) is an American campaign strategist and public relations worker for the U.S. Republican Party. He specializes in political “message development and strategy.”[1] Schmidt was the senior campaign strategist and advisor to the 2008 presidential campaign of Senator John McCain.[2]
Contents [hide]
1 Early life and education
2 Career
2.1 Early campaigns
2.2 Washington, D.C.
2.3 California
2.4 2008 McCain presidential campaign
2.4.1 Press commentary
2.4.2 Stance on gay rights
3 Game Change
4 References
5 External links
[edit]Early life and education
Schmidt, who is of German descent, son of a school teacher and a businessman, grew up in North Plainfield, New Jersey, was an Eagle Scout, a tight end on the high school football team,[3] a two-year member of the National Honor Society, and senior class vice president. In 1988, he was one of two graduating seniors voted “most likely to succeed” by his classmates at North Plainfield High School.[4] He first handed out campaign materials for Democrat Bill Bradley’s 1978 Senate campaign.[5]
Schmidt attended the University of Delaware from 1988 through the spring of 1993, majoring in political science.[6] He left three credits short of graduating because he did not pass a math course; Schmidt has said that he has been diagnosed with a learning disability that makes higher math difficult for him.[3] He joined the Delta Tau Delta fraternity,[4] was a member of the campus Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program, and did field work for Republican candidates in Delaware, sometimes wearing campaign buttons to class.[6]
[edit]Career
[edit]Early campaigns
In 1995, Steve Schmidt managed the unsuccessful campaign for Kentucky Attorney General of Will T. Scott, who is now Deputy Chief Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court. This Kentucky campaign’s advertising strategy was featured in the second edition of George Magazine. In 1998, Schmidt ran California State Senator Tim Leslie’s unsuccessful race for Lt. Governor of California.[7] Also that year, he was the Communications Director for California State Treasurer Matt Fong’s unsuccessful campaign to unseat U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer.[8] In 1999, he was the Communications Director for Lamar Alexander’s presidential run, leaving in June when the campaign reduced its senior staff.[9]
[edit]Washington, D.C.
By late 2000, Schmidt was communications director of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.[10][11]
In 2001, he was the spokesman of the National Republican Congressional Committee,[12] becoming the Communications Director by 2002. He left the NRCC in early 2003 to work for the lobbying firm Direct Impact Company.[13]
Schmidt joined the Bush administration as a Deputy Assistant to the President and Counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney. In 2004, he was a member of the senior strategic planning group, led by White House adviser Karl Rove, that ran President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign; Schmidt oversaw the reelection “war room”.[7] In 2005 and 2006, he was the White House strategist in charge of the U.S. Supreme Court nominations of Samuel Alito[14] and Chief Justice John Roberts.[7]
[edit]California
In 2006, Schmidt left the White House to become the campaign manager in the re-election campaign for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.[14] From there, he became a partner in Mercury Public Affairs, part of Fleishman-Hillard International Communications, in charge of Mercury’s operations in California.[15]
[edit]2008 McCain presidential campaign
See also: John McCain presidential campaign, 2008
On July 2, 2008, Schmidt was appointed to head up day to day operations of the McCain campaign in response to concerns that the campaign lacked coordination and a clear message. Rick Davis retained the formal title of “campaign manager”.[16][17]
[edit]Press commentary
The New York Times described Schmidt’s management as having transformed the McCain campaign into “an elbows-out, risk-taking, disciplined machine,” crediting him with aggressive responses to press criticism and creative methods of manipulating the news cycle.[18]
Time’s Michael Scherer, in an opinion piece from September 15, 2008 relating to Schmidt’s involvement with John McCain’s presidential campaign stated that Schmidt, the “lord of outrage, has a long and prosperous career ahead of him.”[19]
[edit]Stance on gay rights
Schmidt voiced his support for gay rights at meeting of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay Republican group. He said: “I just wanted to take a second to come by and pay my respect and the campaign’s respect to your organization and to your group. Your organization is an important one in the fabric of our party.” [20]
Schmidt said about his lesbian sister and her life partner: “On a personal level, my sister and her partner are an important part of my life and our children’s life. I admire your group and your organization and I encourage you to keep fighting for what you believe in because the day is going to come.”[20]
[edit]Game Change
Schmidt is played by Woody Harrelson in the HBO film Game Change. The film, based on chapters of the book of the same title by political journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, focuses on the choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 United States presidential election. Schmidt is portrayed as initially pushing for the choice of Palin, before later realizing she was unqualified for the job and had limited knowledge of current affairs.[21]
[edit]References
^ Chris Cillizza (December 20, 2006). “McCain Hires Another Bush Insider”. Washington Post.
^ Halloran, Liz (1 August 2008). “Republicans Press Celebrity Attack on Obama”. US News and World Report. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
^ a b Lois Romano (August 21, 2008). “The Silver Bullet: Steve Schmidt Makes Sure His Candidate Knows Exactly What He Is Shooting For”. Washington Post.
^ a b “University of Delaware Delt plays pivotal role on McCain campaign staff”. Home News Tribune and the Courier News. September 7, 2008.
^ Marinucci, Carla (February 12, 2006). “Governor’s team adds former Rove protege:Political ‘artillery shell’ joins re-election effort”. San Francisco Chronicle.
^ a b Chris Barrish (September 15, 2008). “Another kingmaker has links to Delaware: McCain strategist was a student at UD”. The News Journal.
^ a b c Dan Morain and Bob Drogin (October 6, 2008). “Steve Schmidt: The driving force behind John McCain”. Los Angeles Times.
^ Chris Cillizza (September 7, 2008). “Sunday Reading: Steve Schmidt Examined”. Washington Post.
^ David Firestone (June 4, 1999). “Alexander Cuts Staff And Travel”. New York Times.
^ “Steve Schmidt biography”. July 4, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
^ Steve Lilienthal (November 27, 2000). “Republican congressional exec quits for private work”. PR Week USA.
^ Philip Shenon (March 29, 2001). “While Senate Debates, It’s Fund-Raising as Usual”. New York Times.
^ “National Republican Congressional Committee - People & Organizations: Party Lines”. Campaigns & Elections magazine. May 2003.[dead link]
^ a b Marinucci, Carla (February 12, 2006). “Governor’s team adds former Rove protege”. San Francisco Chronicle.
^ Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen (July 3, 2008). “A dose of discipline for McCain’s campaign”. The Politico.
^ Dan Balz and Michael D. Shear (2008-07-02). “McCain Puts New Strategist Atop Campaign”. The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-07-02.
^ Martin, Jonathan (2008-07-02). “Schmidt takes control of day-to-day operation”. Politico.com. Retrieved 2008-09-07.
^ Rutenberg, Jim; Adam Nagourney (2008-09-06). “An Adviser Molds a Tighter, More Aggressive McCain Campaign”. New York Times. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
^ Scherer, Michael (September 15, 2008). “McCain’s Outraged and Outrageous Campaign”. Time.com. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
^ a b Eleveld, Kerry (September 4, 2008). “McCain’s Top Strategist Addresses Log Cabin Republicans”. advocate.com. Retrieved 2008-09-29.
^ Dunn, Geoffrey (March 7, 2012). “Game Change: Sarah Palin and the Confessions of Steve Schmidt”. Huffington Post. Retrieved March 9, 2012.
[edit]External links
Nagourney, Adam (July 3, 2008). “McCain Orders Shake-Up of His Campaign”. The New York Times.
“For” 1070? He voted against 1070.
Are his children illegal aliens?
I’m homynym challenged.
There is now no person in America I respect less than John Roberts. No decent American should have anything to do with him or his family and his name should only be spoken as a curse word.
Roberts is worse than Obama. A traitor is more despicable than an open enemy, and there has never been a traitor who did more damage to this nation than John Roberts.
You are right. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush_Supreme_Court_candidates
He appointed Roberts as a replacement for O’Connor, assuring the One Worlder Globalists of another suympathetic Justice.
I’m sorry, there is NOTHING good I can say about the Bush Klan. Everytime I see Obama and his actions destroying America, I see the two men who helped put him there - Bush II and John McCain.
Actually, Alito replaced Miers...but your point about trusting the Bush’s with judges (they’ve batted .500, both 41 and 43) remains
His children came from Ireland VIA LATIN AMERICA??? WHY vis LATIN AMERICA??? Makes one wonder IF they could be ILLEGALLY in the US.
I highly recommend to all concerned that we hold our fire, for now, against the chief justice, because nothing is as it seems at first glance in either politics or the law.
Roberts may have “won the war by losing a battle”.
There are some “killer” finesses to the US Constitution that are only known to serious scholars, and it is going to be a while before the truth comes out.
Here are some arguments you might consider with all seriousness.
Taxation. What is the difference between the individual mandate being based on being a tax vs. it being based on either the Interstate Commerce Clause or the General Welfare Clause, as has been said in the past?
Roberts insisted on writing the *majority* opinion in exchange for his vote, but in doing so, he very carefully *changed* the rationale for the individual mandate. This is of *supreme* importance, this I know, and might make all the difference in the world.
Pay attention to this, big time. It means something! And it may end up totally NUKING not just Obama, but a heck of a lot more.
As some leftist noted yesterday, Obamacare is the “culmination of 100 years” of effort to create socialized medicine. Virtually the entire life of the “Progressive” movement.
This means there is a gigantic pyramid of Progressive anti-constitutionalism built up through the entire 20th Century.
Imagine if, by his actions, Roberts may have caused the entire pyramid to begin to crumble? Not just Obamacare, but LBJ’s “Great Society” welfare state and FDR’s “New Deal”, and even going back to the Progressivism of Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson?
We really won’t know until after the election, so right now the most important thing we can do is get as many Tea Party people elected as possible!
What you say about the loathesome Roberts is so true. John Roberts is like the guy who finds himself in the midst of a group of thugs in a schoolyard. Instead of standing up for the victim, Roberts chimes in with them so as not to be the next subject of the gang’s wrath. A true profile in cowardice. Bob
In theory, if blackmail could be proven, would his vote then be null...or what???
It would NEVER be proven....Roberts sure wouldn’t tell.
“In declining states the leadership intuitively choses the most harmful course of action.”- A Great Historian 1888
I agree with Glenn Beck that the Bushes’ progressive and globalist tendencies have led us to the point where demons such as Clinton and Obama can be elected. But W. is not responsible for Roberts turning out to be a swine. He became that without any help from anyone. Bob
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