You know when you hear someone say, "Democrats, Republicans: Feh. They're all the same. It doesn't matter who wins," and even as you think, "Oh my fucking God, I am not even going to have this conversation," you hear yourself stammering, "Yeah, but what about the judges they nominate?" OK, what about the judges they nominate? Just to pull a Republican out of a hat, let's take John McCain. In his speech Tuesday at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, CNN reports, he pledged to nominate only strict-constructionist judges to the federal bench. (Remember when you thought his membership in the 2006 "Gang of 14" might make him some sort of, I don't know, "maverick"? Yeah, well.)
"It will fall to the next president to nominate hundreds of qualified men and women to the federal courts, and the choices we make will reach far into the future," he said, adding, "MMWWWWUAAAHAAHAAAA!"
Here's what we know from the past (PDF):
1. McCain: "I will try to find clones of Alito and Roberts."
2. McCain: Also, I voted for Bork.
3. Gary Bauer: "McCain, in private, assured me he would appoint pro-life judges."
4. McCain also voted for superstars such as William Pryor, nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, who called Roe v. Wade "the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history," and Charles Pickering, nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, who, while serving in the Mississippi Senate, supported a resolution urging Congress to pass a constitutional amendment to ban abortion under most circumstances.
It's not just about abortion, of course. But even if it were: "John McCain's voting record reads like a Who's Who List of right-wing activist judges who are hostile to the constitutional right to privacy and want to allow politicians to interfere in our most personal, private medical decisions," said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "McCain's support of anti-choice judges will be one of many reasons voters, especially pro-choice Independent and Republican women, will not cast their ballots for him in the fall."
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