Forgive a short moment of what will seem like ambulance - chasing. But like everyone else (at least on the West Coast) I woke up this morning to the not-unexpected news that the White House had announced a new Supreme Court nominee. Anything to get Scooter Libby off the front pages, I suppose. Whatever. Here's the part that makes no sense to me. Within 45 seconds, I am hearing an outpouring of opinion from all sides of the political spectrum on this particular individual, whose name I can barely yet pronounce much less spell. Okay, he's a federal appelate judge, so I have to assume that he is reasonably well known to at least a subset of the people who are busy opining about his qualifications and his political leanings. It's the other people I'm worried about -- the people and groups who have never heard of this guy until this morning, and within 45 seconds have a fully formed and deeply held opinion about whether he should be confirmed.
This makes me crazy. How about this for a radical proposition? The President names his nominee. Everyone sits back for 24 hours and keeps their mouth shut. Maybe they read a few of his decisions. Maybe they do a little research. Maybe they simply think a little bit.
I know it's impossible to enforce such a cooling off period. But this is a supreme court nominee, not a first round draft pick for the NY Giants defensive line.
Excellent proposition. I think world is not only getting flatter, but also too fast. Most people do not have time or patience to think about anything.
Posted by: Matti Kinnunen | 31 October 2005 at 02:06 PM
Alito would have been a welcome draft pick for the Giants after this week's performance. In fact, his performance today was actually rather impressive. His past work is of some concern but thus far he we should continue to take Weber's advice and sit back and take in some more information, see what knowledge it bares and take it from there.
Posted by: Lincoln Ellis | 09 January 2006 at 07:07 PM