Posted on 08/31/2011 3:09:57 PM PDT by SmithL
Senate Republicans were irate at Goodwin Liu's opposition to President George W. Bush's Supreme Court candidates. Imagine their indignation if they'd known that Liu had a hand in a Supreme Court opinion that, if it had prevailed, might have kept Bush out of the White House.
The information comes from Herma Hill Kay, a law school colleague of Liu's at UC Berkeley. She wrote to the state Commission on Judicial Appointments in support of Gov. Jerry Brown's nomination of Liu to the California Supreme Court, after President Obama's choice of the 40-year-old academic for a federal appeals court seat in San Francisco was blocked by a Republican filibuster. He's a cinch to be confirmed when the commission takes up his nomination later this afternoon.
Before Liu joined the Berkeley faculty in 2003, Kay said, she called an old friend, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for whom Liu had clerked in 2000. Kay said Ginsburg told her that "his work on her dissent in Bush v. Gore had been 'exemplary.'"
That was, of course, the December 2000 ruling in which a 5-4 majority halted the presidential vote recount in Florida and sealed Bush's victory over Democrat Al Gore. Dissenters said the recount ordered by Florida's high court should continue; Ginsburg argued that the nation's high court had always deferred to state courts' interpretations of their own laws in the past, except in rare cases when Southern states had twisted the law to punish civil rights protesters. And unlike most minority opinions that end with the words "I respectfully dissent," Ginsburg simply wrote, "I dissent."
Justices often ask their clerks to write at least the first draft of their opinions... Ginsburg didn't tell her how much Liu had contributed to her dissenting opinion. But she indicated his contribution went beyond...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
This guy shouldn't be on the bench anywhere.
Leftists and SFGate homos deliciously repeat falsehoods until they forget they are falsehoods. There was never a chance that the Supreme Court would keep Bush out of the White House. Bush vs. Gore was not one decision, but two. Gore had to win both to have a shot at the Presidency. Of the two, the 5-4 decision ordering a halt to the inane recounts was the sideshow.
The real decision wasn't close. By a vote of 7-2, the Court decided that the Florida Supreme Court was not entitled to change laws duly enacted by the Florida state legislature governing what constitutes a lawfully recordable vote. (Pace the strange new respect shown to States' Rights by Mrs. Ginsburg, USSC review was pretty much inevitable because it was a Federal election.)
The Florida court's position was so laughable, even some of the USSC's Marxists helped to shoot it down. And if unmarked ballots could not be interpreted as unambiguous votes for Gore—as the FSC ordered, in defiance of state election law—Gore had no chance. It didn't matter whether the recount was stopped.
That, incidentally, is why tallies of the ballots made by Lamestream Media reporters after the election all had Bush winning the state.
Herma Hill Kay, a law school colleague of Liu's at UC Berkeley... called an old friend, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for whom Liu had clerked in 2000. Kay said Ginsburg told her that "his work on her dissent in Bush v. Gore had been 'exemplary.'"
And .. just to add a little more light to the already great comments:
One year after the 2000 election (as the law provides), several left-wing media outlets pooled their money and petitioned for a recount in Florida. They had to pool their money because it is very costly to have such a thing done.
The recount went forward - and the media was silent about it. After the recount was finished - a teeny, tiny article appeared in the back of the WP. Bush had won FL with over 1500 votes .. not 537. Hmmmm ..?? Looks like the dems were really trying to steal the election.
As you would guess .. most of the public didn’t know anything about it. That’s why the left kept saying Bush stole the election - because they had kept the recount a secret.
One morning while watching FOX, one of the liberal hacks, Bob Beckel, made a comment about “... Bush stole the election”.
I went ballistic in my living room and sat down at my computer and typed out the FACTS - including the little article about the media’s recount. I also took Bob to task for spreading LIES about Bush.
To this day, I cannot stand the sight of Bob Beckel; and I always press MUTE when I see his face.
Some other memories of the 2000 election:
* Bush had a comfortable lead of about 4% over Gore in all the major pre-election polls, until the weekend before the election a democratic operative pedaled a traffic citation from 1977 in which GWB had hit a mailbox in a single car accident. The MSM inferred this was evidence of drunken-driving and spent the entire 3 days before the election speculating on GWB’s alcohol habits on all major newcasts. This coordinated smear campaign is what made the election close.
* The Florida panhandle is in a later time zone than the rest of the state, and the panhandle counties are very heavily republican. The MSM all called Florida for Gore well before the polls closed in the panhandle counties, which had the effect of supressing voter turnout there. Statistical analysis has shown that this cost Bush 10s of thousands of votes which would have made the state not even close.
* I personally viewed the 2000 election as a bit of a political epiphany. Though I’d always been aware of the news media bias in analysis (a roundtable discussion panel would consists of a moderate republican and three democrats), I had always thought that facts were facts and all journalists were professional enough not to lie about basic facts. On election night 2000, my brother told me about a website called “Free Republic” that was posting actual unfiltered election information. A few weeks later, I was on a business trip to DC and joined a hardy group of Freepers outside the Naval Observatory in chanting ‘Out of Cheney’s House’. We made the local 11pm news and I was a hero at my business meeting the next day (at a defense contractor). Meanwhile, my 4 year old son made his liberal pre-school teacher’s head explode by drawing pictures of “Al Gore stealing elections” in class. By January 2001, I had forever cancelled my NPR subscription, and was lobbying my local cable company for Fox News.
Ah, the memories ...
Glad to have you on board Captain.
It’s great to hear all the stories of how people found FR.
Mine was from poo-pooing my son (adult) when he told me I should read one of Rush’s books. I started listen to Rush on the radio - and I found myself saying, “I can’t believe there’s anybody else in the would who believes like I do”. Needless to say, I was hooked. While listening to Rush, he started mentioning FR - curiously, I started searching for them on the internet.
I’ve been a member ever since.
Hope to see you again.
That is a great story, CaptainMorgantown...you must have been at Cheney’s house with the Trooprallys and their crowd (DC Chapter)...:)
excellent post.
Next time a lib friends talks about “Bush stealing the election” I will cut & paste this.
I feel sheepish writing this, but this is the very first time I've read that Bush won by anything MORE than 537 votes.
I feel sheepish writing this, but this is the very first time I’ve read that Bush won by anything MORE than 537 votes.
What is never mentioned are the 2,500 plus Military Ballots that the Rats fought to disqualify. Those Ballots were not included in the Certified numbers.
Once again, the Democrats diminish our Military Men and Women. They got away with it then and they get away with it now.
The live threads for the Bush vs Gore cases were a great time on FR.
Don’t feel bad .. the media hid it well - ON PURPOSE.
It was such a pleasure to call Bob out and expose what a political HACK is really is.
Thank goodness for FR - otherwise I would not have known either.
i can not remember the news woman who said as the florida results came in for bush... “we lost florida”... she wasn’t reporting, but in the background walking by...
said a lot about the journalistic integrity of the election... to me.
t
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.