New at Reason

Tim Cavanaugh | May 18, 2006

Harvey A. Silverglate takes up the strange case of former Judge J. Michael Luttig.

Comments

|5.18.06 @ 3:28PM|#

There's a typo at the end of the first paragraph where it refers to "Lutting" rather than "Luttig".

|5.18.06 @ 3:33PM|#

NPR marketplace anounced this news by saying this guy was on the short list to get a Supreme Court nomination if there is another one in this administration. Also, it is difficult to imagine Boeing hiring a general counsel who is on the outs with the Bush Administration considering all of the problems Boeing has had in the last three years. I think the guy just wanted to make the big bucks in private industry.

Tim Cavanaugh|5.18.06 @ 3:44PM|#

T'anks, SR. Fixed.

|5.18.06 @ 4:37PM|#

I can't wait to see what movement and social conservatives start saying once there's a Hillary in the office.

I think that'll be a disaster almost worth the price of admission to watch the howlers whine about it.

|5.18.06 @ 4:46PM|#

"I can't wait to see what movement and social conservatives start saying once there's a Hillary in the office.

I think that'll be a disaster almost worth the price of admission to watch the howlers whine about it."

I think you will be disapointed since they won't be saying much. After the Dems renew the fairness doctrine shutting down talk radio and Fox News and use McCain Feingold version 2.0 to silence those pesky bloggers, I don't think you will here much one way or another.

|5.18.06 @ 5:09PM|#

After the Dems renew the fairness doctrine shutting down talk radio and Fox News and use McCain Feingold version 2.0 to silence those pesky bloggers, I don't think you will here much one way or another.

Still got a few years left to warm up your victim act, John. Not quite ready for primetime yet but it'll improve with practice.

|5.18.06 @ 5:18PM|#

I think you will be disapointed since they won't be saying much.

Either you missed the whole blue dress episode, or you're just being silly.

The great part about Queen Hillary will be that disingenuous snots like Malkin and Instapundit have a long, easily searched body of work to throw back at them when they start screeching about executive overreach. "But that was different..."

|5.18.06 @ 5:26PM|#

Eh, they won't even bat an eye...Bush's over-reach was because of 9-11 and making the world safe for Democracy, the Democrat's over-reach will just be plain self-absorbed, evil.

The joy of being firmly convinced you're always right is, well, always believing you're right.

|5.18.06 @ 5:30PM|#

When we had the fairness doctrine, there was no talk radio to speak of. Talk radio did not come around until Reagan killed the fairness doctrine in the 1980s. The Democrats in Congress want to bring it back in a big way. If they ever controlled all three branches of government, it is a dead lock that it would come back. Radio stations would rather than deal with the hassels from the FCC just stop carrying talk radio.

As far as bloggers go, the FEC barely decided that campaign finance restrictions don't apply to the web. All you have to do is change the law and someone like Malkin or Instapundit criticizing Hillary on a blog versus a "licensed media outlet" becomes a campaign contribution to the the Repbulicans and subject to regulation.

Take those legal changes and put the full force of the exectutive branch behind them and we will find out what silencing your critics really means.

|5.18.06 @ 5:55PM|#

All you have to do is change the law and someone like Malkin or Instapundit criticizing Hillary on a blog versus a "licensed media outlet" becomes a campaign contribution to the the Repbulicans and subject to regulation.

Meanwhile, back on planet earth, the lefties like Kos and Atrios were the loudest campaigners against FEC overreach.

|5.18.06 @ 6:05PM|#

Yes they are fishbane, do you think KOS and his ilk would have a problem with changing the laws if the Dems controled things? Moreover, are you so nieve as to think that the laws would be enforced fairly under the Dems? KOS would have about as much chance of being held to account by a Dem controlled FEC as the NAACP would of being audited by the IRS or having its tax exempt status looked at under the Clinton administration.

|5.18.06 @ 8:08PM|#

This is obviously going nowhere; John and I appear to inhabit different worlds.

Given that Kos (it is a nickname, not an acronym) was fighting other Democratic party members on the issue, yes, in fact, I do think he would have a problem with changing the laws if the Democratic party controlled things.

It is shocking, I know, but not every liberal is, in fact, driven by narrow self interest. And sometimes, even if it is by accident, they end up on the correct side of things.

With that, I'm done on this one. Except to ask that wasn't Nieve a sexy french 50's actress? If so, I'm entirely too male and ugly to be nieve.

|5.18.06 @ 8:43PM|#

Luttig's turnabout is, for me, easily the most shocking of all the turnabouts that have occurred in the wreckage-strewn wake of the Bush admin's destructive reign.

Luttig was SUCH a shitty judge, a biased, unfair, partisan, Bush admin lapdog, that it STILL kills me to say anything good about the guy. But... whatever the motivation, he certainly did do the right thing.... when he got a second chance.

|5.18.06 @ 9:33PM|#

Let's see: Luttig issues a ruling that Bush has unchecked power whenever he declares that somebody is a terrorist. Bush refuses to go to bat for Luttig by arguing in favor of Luttig's ruling before the Supreme Court.

Luttig understandably is outraged.

At this point, Luttig has 2 choices:

1) Realize that handing unchecked power to a weasel with no sense of loyalty is a bad idea. Repent. Stay on the bench and try to mend some of the damage that he wrought by adhering to his oath and upholding the Bill of Rights.

2) Accept a lucrative job in the military-industrial complex, profiting from Bush's war.

Luttig chose 30 pieces of silver.

|5.19.06 @ 12:24AM|#

Two words: Stare Decisis.

The damage is done whether he stays or goes. Good riddance to bad rubbish, and at an expected salary of $700-800K a year plus bonuses, he isn't exactly a martyr.